“Not all magic is amongst the Stars in the Dark. It is also in the soils at our feet.”

The grapes all come from Niemandsrivier, a beautiful 3 hectare vineyard in South Africa’s coolest viticultural climate, Elgin. We lease these vines from Johan and Milanie Vosloo and farm them ourselves. Planted in 2006, the parcel features three clones (SH9c, SH21 and SH22) on a geographically complex mix of Sandstone and Shale soils and is the perfect canvas to produce fine wines.The vines lie on a plateau at 200m above sea level, influenced by maritime winds off the Cold Atlantic Ocean just 10km away.

Vines located in the same block can react to their environment in unique ways and No Place Like Home is an exploration of the variation that exists within a single vineyard. Using a mix of drone technology (with a Near Infrared Camera flying 80m above the vineyard) and good, old-fashioned soil analysis, we identified four distinct pockets across the 3 hectare parcel, then harvested andfermented them separately before meticulously blending only the best barrels to produce the most complete wine.

A tiny, early and wet vintage. The growing season kicked off with uneven budding, which required aggressive suckering to even out the canopy. The open foliage that resulted rewarded us in the late season with depth, colour and structure in undeniably high disease pressure season. Tracking 2 weeks early we’ll remember 2023 for its untimely late rains that gave us sleepless nights. Once the picking started, it was a 2 and a half week race against the rain to get our crop safely into the cellar. Despite a tricky season in the vines, a careful finger on the pulse in the vines has made this a strong contender for my top wine of the vintage.