All producers
Storm
Walker Bay, South Africa8 wines4.1 avg
71
Hannes Storm's Pinot Noir and Chardonnay across all three Hemel-en-Aarde appellations - tiny parcels, ex-Hamilton Russell, and the only producer working Valley, Upper Valley, and Ridge simultaneously.
Hannes Storm is a winemaker from South Africa dedicated to expressing terroirs of WO Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. After twelve vintages of working with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, he discovered two tiny parcels of land with exceptional terroirs and planted them with Pinot Noir in 2008. His maiden vintage saw the light in 2012, and after 18 months in bottle, the wines were released in August 2014.
His approach - handcraft, small production, careful viticulture, minimal intervention in the cellar.
Hannes now works with three plots, each in a different Hemel-en-Aarde appellation, all farmed by him personally:
- Vrede - Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Low-vigour, stony, clay-rich Bokkeveld shale soil in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. Silky, red-fruited, the most Burgundian in profile.
- Ignis - Pinot Noir and (from later vintages) Chardonnay. Decomposed granite in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. Darker, more structured, spicier.
- Ridge - Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Low-vigour, stony, clay-rich Bokkeveld shale in the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge. Taut, mineral, highest-toned.
WO Hemel-en-Aarde Valley is divided into Valley, Upper Valley, and Ridge. Hannes grows Pinot Noir in all three - and as of 2026, he remains the only winemaker with this distinction.
2019 was a culmination of three years of bone-dry soils. Although vines are drought-tolerant, the stress reached a crescendo. Vines' only purpose is to nurture their offspring - grapes and seeds. When stressed, they focus so much energy on so few grapes. Consequently, 2019 was very small in production but very concentrated and potent.
Before starting his own project, Hannes spent over a decade at Hamilton Russell Vineyards, completing twelve vintages of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Hamilton Russell is South Africa's benchmark Pinot estate; Peter Finlayson (father of Crystallum's Peter-Allan) was its founding winemaker before going on to co-found Bouchard Finlayson. Storm is widely regarded as one of South Africa's top Pinot producers, alongside Crystallum, Newton Johnson, and his former employer.
