Hamilton Russell 2007 Chardonnay (Hemel-en-Aarde Valley) – Serious chardonnay, with ambition expressed in deeply soil-driven aromatics, good structure, a fine-grained patina of wood, and brooding fruit met in equal measure by aromatic porcini. I’m very eager to see this one develop. (10/08)
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When you taste the Southern Right for the first time
Southern Right 2006 Pinotage (Walker Bay) – Big, explosive fruit that presses and shoves its way onto the palate. Dark berries and smokier chocolate notes are paired with the usual unfortunate furniture polish aromas, but here they’re more subversive than irritating, and seem to drift all the way into the background with food. I rather like this, though it’s no good as a cocktail. (2/08)
More than a Hamilton
Hamilton Russell 2005 Pinot Noir (Walker Bay) – Very, very large-scaled. It’s not that the fruit is overripe or the alcohol is prominent, and certainly this is recognizable as pinot, it’s just that the wine is massive. Also, there’s a thick, intrusive layer of oak doing its best to bury the fruit at the moment. There’s plenty of structure, and given the brilliance of their chardonnay I’m inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt, but it will unquestionably need plenty of age to make any sense of itself. (7/07)