Pinot Noir

Grilled Norwegian salmon with a soy ginger sauce, mushroom risotto, guinea fowl pie.

The 2022 growing season was almost a week later than usual for Pinot Noir from the vineyards of La Vierge Babylon in the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge. The average maximum temperatures for the months leading up to, and during harvest, was almost a degree higher than the long-term average of 25°C. The ripening was slow and extended with the harvest being complete second week March. Winter saw the most rainfall since the maiden vintage of 2015, followed by a dry spring which made for even and healthy budding. This vintage delivered beautiful, pure fruit wines.

9.5 months - 100% 228L French Oak Barrels 1st fill: 33% 2nd fill: 23% 3rd fill: 23% 4th fill: 21%.

Tesselaarsdal was founded in 2015 by long-standing Hamilton Russell Vineyards employee Berene Sauls. This wine is named after the historic Overberg farming hamlet of Tesselaarsdal not far from the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge wine appellation in which Berene was born – a descendant of the freed slaves who were bequeathed the land by former East India Company settler Johannes Tesselaar in 1810. Extreme care is taken to ensure this small-production classically styled Pinot noir expresses the personality of the cool maritime Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge from un-irrigated vines and its elevated stony clay and iron-rich soils.