Storm Wines: producer profile and latest releases

There’s a phrase in Afrikaans which you hear a lot in the winelands of the Western Cape. When speaking to South African growers and winemakers about their processes and guiding principles, you’re never far from the remark ‘n boer maak ‘n plan: ‘a farmer makes a plan’.

This willingness to improvise to solve problems is a refreshing approach – and it’s one which Hannes Storm, owner and winemaker at Storm Wines, embraces every day. On both occasions we’ve met recently, he’s responded to various questions with a shrug and ’n boer maak ‘n plan.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of the five latest-release Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs from Storm Wines

Hannes, who owns and runs Storm Wines with his wife Nathalia in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, near the seaside town of Hermanus, is certainly a man with a plan. Everything he does in the vineyard and cellar follows a simple but clear process – one which has elevated the wines he makes to among the very best not only in the region but South Africa as a whole.

The focus is on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, with five cuvées produced across three appellations in the cool Hemel-en-Aarde hills.

How did it all begin?

A Stellenbosch University winemaking graduate, Hannes has been making wines in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley for years. He joined Hamilton Russell Vineyards in 2004 and was the estate’s winemaker until 2012 when he officially launched Storm Wines.

During his stint at Hamilton Russell he helped to map out and plant many of the vineyards in the valley and fell in love with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir after exposure to some of the great Burgundian wines he enjoyed during vintage dinners. ‘Some of these wines still bring a tear to the eye thinking about them,’ he says. ‘It was difficult for me to follow another path when you’ve tasted these wonderful wines.’

He always wanted to go it alone one day so, in 2008, while still at Hamilton Russell he planted his first vines and began plotting Storm Wines. In 2012 he made a brace of Pinot Noirs and has never looked back.

Since then Storm Wines has carved out a reputation for producing expressive single-site Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with elegance and a Burgundian feel. These are serious wines, made with attention to detail every step of the way.

Focus on the basics

A lot of thought has gone into how Hannes wants to make his wines. His teeth-cutting stint at Hamilton Russell has clearly given him time to consider his best approach to winemaking.

The overarching philosophy is simple enough. ‘Terroir-driven wines without any intervention from outside,’ he says. This is achieved through many small measures and a formula that the Storm team pretty much sticks to each vintage.

There’s a strong focus on getting the basics right; quality across everything, and a laser-sharp attention to detail in the vineyard.

Storm is the only producer to make wines across all three Hemel-en-Aarde appellations, with vineyards in the Hemel-en­-Aarde Valley, Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley and Hemel-en­-Aarde Ridge areas. These are all low-yielding vineyards and, in a normal year, there’s a 10-day picking window between each vineyard, which helps with production flow in the winery.

Both the Vrede and Ridge Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays grow on low-vigour, stony, clay­-rich Bokkeveld shale soils, while the Ignis Pinot Noir is on decomposed granite.

‘We are farming on the very limit,’ he says, referring to the low-yielding nature of the vineyards as well as his approach to viticulture. Some years there’s barely enough fruit to cover costs, but that’s the trade-off he faces in the pursuit of quality.

Then and now

It’s been a decade since the first Storm wines – have there been any tweaks in that time? ‘From the maiden vintage in 2012 we haven’t changed anything recipe-wise, so we can compare apples with apples from 2012 to now,’ says Hannes.

‘Each year 99% is 100% the same,’ he adds with a smile. From a winemaking point of view this includes the use of 25% new French oak for each wine (all in 228-litre barrels), 100% malolactic fermentation in barrel, no filtering, three or four rackings of each wine prior to bottling, and 15 months maturation in bottle before release for each wine. The list goes on, but it’s a formula which clearly works.

Looking around the cellar at Storm it’s a small but tidy set up which means that Hannes and Nathalia are hands-on in almost every aspect of the operation in the vineyard and winery. That includes everything from helping manoeuvre trucks carrying large, heavy equipment onto the farm to baboon management in the vineyard.

Baboon management is a recurring theme but Hannes says he ‘has a plan’ for dealing with these vineyard pests. Of course he does.

Looking ahead

Hannes regularly gets asked if he plans to add an Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Chardonnay to the Storm stable so he has one Chardonnay and one Pinot Noir from each appellation in the valley. ‘I don’t have sleepless nights about it,’ he says, but admits that he does have ideas of certain pockets or parcels of land in mind for such a project.

‘If something should become available I’d consider it, but I won’t do it just for the sake of it.’

Storage space is an issue, however, so a new winery is on the cards. And he would like to move towards farming every vineyard organically (the Ignis vineyard has been organic since 2015). But until then Hannes and his team here are very happy to keep on keeping on.

‘We must just keep on doing what we’re doing,’ he says. ‘The positive thing is the vineyards are getting older each day, and that will offer us something extra each year.

‘We are very privileged to be able to make wine here so we must try to not change too much.’

Storm Wines: the facts

Founded 2008 (first release was from the 2012 vintage)

Owners Hannes and Nathalia Storm

Winery location Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, South Africa

Annual production 30,000 bottles

Key vineyards Ridge, Vrede, Ignis

Area under vine 9.5ha

Key wines Ridge Chardonnay, Vrede Chardonnay, Ignis Pinot Noir, Ridge Pinot Noir, Vrede Pinot Noir

Storm Wines: latest-release Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs

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