Hamilton Russel

Hamilton Russel Vineyards is located in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley (Heaven and Earth Valley) in South Africa's Walker Bay wine-growing district. This southernmost winery in South Africa is only three kilometres from the Atlantic coast. The seaside resort of Hermanus is close by. It was founded in 1976 by the Englishman Tim Hamilton-Russel, a former chairman of an international advertising agency. He is regarded as one of the South African winegrowing pioneers. Together with winemaker Peter Finlayson (who founded the "Bouchard Finlayson" winery with Paul Bouchard in 1990), he produced wines from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc in the Burgundy style, which caused a great stir from the early 1980s onwards. Since 1991, his son Anthony has been running the business. He initiated a subdivision of the vineyards into 16 soil types suitable for certain grape varieties. The vineyards cover 65 hectares on poor and stony soils with a high content of clay and slate. Only the ripest grapes are harvested during the selective grape harvest. Fermentation takes place in small, temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks and the wine is matured in French barriques. The top brand is the unfiltered Pinot Noir "Ashborne", first produced in 1996. The sub-winery "Southern Right Cellars" (15 ha) concentrates on the varieties Chenin Blanc and Pinotage. Around 200,000 bottles of wine are produced annually.