Restless River: producer profile and six wines to try

South Africa’s Hemel-en-Aarde Valley near the coastal town of Hermanus in the Western Cape has become synonymous for high-quality Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. In this rugged valley, just a few miles from the ocean, are some of the country’s most exciting and well-known producers.

Located in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley appellation is Restless River, named after the Onrus River which splits the valley in two. Here, Craig and Anne Wessels farm Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but also Cabernet Sauvignon, a rare grape in these parts and one which stands them out from the other producers in the region.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for six Restless River wines to try

Winemaker Craig Wessels is self-taught. ‘I didn’t study wine,’ he says, ‘but I do drink a lot.’

His passion for Cabernet Sauvignon is evident and you sense that he likes the fact that other growers and winemakers in the valley are slightly suspicious of his Cabernet plantings.

‘Cabernet put us on the map,‘ he says. ‘Our focus here is Pinot and Chardonnay, which is expected in the valley, but I’m so in love with the Cabernet we grow, so I’ll always pursue that as well. We planted some more Cabernet recently, much to the horror of everyone else around here!’

The focus at Restless River is on these three varieties and each wine is a single-grape, single-site expression.

How did it all begin?

The couple bought the property in 2004. They were looking to move to the country from Cape Town and fell in love with the place, even though there was nothing here except some vineyards and a shed.

Drawn to the wildness of the spot – and the shed in which Craig made the first Restless River wines in 2005 – they set up home and now live in a family house on the farm.

‘We had to sell everything in Cape Town to buy the farm,’ says Anne. ‘We didn’t inherit the farm, we don’t have a safety network or a backup, so this has to work.’

When they arrived, the property was planted with 6ha of Cabernet and Chardonnay vineyards, the latter being some of the oldest in the valley. The Cabernet grapes comprised the first vintage in 2005 with the Chardonnay fruit sold on. The first Restless River Chardonnay arrived in 2008, with plantings of Pinot Noir following in 2013.

Wessels is keen to stress that he’s foremost a farmer, with the winemaking a noble but second string. ‘Over the years we’ve been planting more grapes and have become full-on farmers,‘ he says. ‘Our focus now is farming, we are farmers and we also make wine out of those grapes.’

Everything begins in the vineyard

There is a jagged beauty to the vineyards at Restless River.

When the mist descends in the valley it highlights the huge orange, iron-rich boulders which jut from the soil beneath the low-terraced vines, creating an almost alien landscape.

It’s here that it all starts for Wessels. ‘It’s all about the dirt, the terroir,’ he says. ‘It’s an old cliché, but it’s true. The philosophy has never changed. Since day one, I always knew that I wanted to make wine that reflected the vineyards, so my approach was to do as little as possible to the wine, which suited me really well because I didn’t know much.’

He has clearly learnt along the way as the Restless River wines are consistently among the finest examples of variety-led wines in South Africa and beyond.

Restless River at a glance

Founded 2004

Owners Craig and Anne Wessels

Annual production 40,000 bottles

Vineyard area Eight hectares currently in production

Key vineyards Ava Marie, Le Luc, Main Road, Dignity

Core wines Ava Marie Chardonnay, Le Luc Pinot Noir, Main Road & Dignity Cabernet Sauvignon

There is huge variation of soils across the farm, from decomposed granite and clay to light gravelly granite, which is where the Le Luc block of Pinot Noir is planted. These are ancient soils, some 500-600 million years old.

Given the altitude of the farm (370m above sea level) and the proximity to the cold South Atlantic ocean (just three miles over the mountain), the vineyards enjoy a cool climate with an average nighttime temperature in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley of 7.8°C.

Restless River is one of the last farms to harvest grapes here, and this longer growing season offers the fruit extended hang time resulting in greater phenolic ripeness.

When it comes to harvest, there is staggered parcel picking for all the wines as certain blocks – certain rows even – ripen at different times. Speaking about the Ava Marie Chardonnay, Wessels says: ‘We build the Chardonnay in the vineyard, each pick is a different building block.’

How has the wine style changed over the years?

From the first few barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon made in the old shed (which still stands on the farm, a stone’s throw away from a much larger, more modern winery) to the 40,000 bottles made annually today, Wessels says that not much has changed in that time.

The focus remains on just three cultivars and the wines are made in roughly the same way each year. ‘I’m not doing anything differently except better timing in terms of picking, as I’m understanding the vineyards better,’ he says.

There’s also a better understanding of the oaking process, he concedes, and now works directly with coopers in France and understands that process better. He regularly visits coopers – as well as producers – in Burgundy to further his knowledge in both areas..

Looking ahead

With a strong following and reputation both domestically and on the international stage, where does Restless River go next?

‘We will continue to focus on these three varieties and make the best wines we can from these vineyards,’ says Wessels, although he does have an interesting side-project called Wanderlust which is certainly one to watch.

The Wanderlust label is a vehicle for Wessels to experiment and work with grape varieties and styles of wine which don’t fit the Restless River mould. Each year he releases a one-off wine under the Wanderlust imprint; recent incarnations have included a partial carbonic maceration Grenache in 2017, a Sauvignon Blanc in 2018 and an eight-grape red field blend in 2020.

‘The Wanderlust project is never going to interfere with or confuse our direction in terms of where we go with Restless River, it’s something that’s purely creative and expressive from my side,’ he explains. ‘It’s practical too, because we have quite a big harvesting gap between the end of Chardonnay and the beginning of Cabernet as it’s such a late ripener. Sometimes we have six weeks and I can’t sit around and do nothing for six weeks, so that’s kind of where the Wanderlust idea came from.’

In terms of Restless River itself there are plans to plant more Pinot Noir on a mountain vineyard site in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley known as Cloud’s End, and they might even put some more Cabernet in the ground, just to frighten the locals a little more.

Restless River: six wines to seek out

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