Hemel en Aarde (South Africa) (AFP)

Between heaven and earth: this is the name in Afrikaans for this valley nestled between arid mountains and the freshness of the ocean, where pioneers produce different wines, inspired by this generous nature.

They do not seek to imitate the big European brothers, omnipresent reference, a little overwhelming.

But to present wines with a firmly South African identity, which tell the story of their birthplace at the end of the world, with what they bear from the heritage of the first plantations of the Huguenots.

"We are neither from the New World nor from the Old", sums up Emul Ross, 35-year-old cellar master, alongside his boss Anthony Hamilton Russell who bought 52 ha from his own family in the early 1990s. Domaine produces a red and a white, made from Burgundy grape varieties (central-eastern France).

The soils contain high percentages of clay, like those of Côte de Nuits, a vineyard in Burgundy, "and during blind tastings, we are sometimes confused".

Despite a very different maritime climate.

At the end of its vines, some fynbos, typical scrub, then a cliff and the Atlantic, very close to its junction with the Indian Ocean.

"It's a free air conditioner, the wind blows all the time," explains Anthony Hamilton Russell.

“The air is exceptionally clean. I like to think that there is nothing between us and Antarctica,” thousands of miles away.

In the midst of vines of chardonnay grapes, golden green, dozens of workers in overalls advance, cutting the bunches, holding out their full cases towards the tractor, weeds between their feet.

"No herbicides. A bare land is a dead land", opines the elegant 58-year-old boss, wearing a large-brimmed cream Indiana Jones hat with crocodile ribbon.

- Gymnast against sumo -

The harvest is late at the start of southern autumn.

The opportunity to catch your breath at the end of a terrible year marked by the coronavirus and the alcohol bans imposed to relieve the country's emergency services.

The Hemel en Aarde winegrowers, included in the Walker Bay appellation, have suffered less than others.

Thanks to their reputation for quality, now established abroad, and their smaller volumes than those of traditional estates.

The "dazzling success" of their "fresh, fine wines, less exuberance and power" than their mainstream competitors, is explained by their choice to respect the environment and limit additives, key to "making the radiance of the terroir ", explains Pascaline Lepeltier, French sommelier based in New York.

Another local glory is Chris Alheit, a facetious 39-year-old winemaker in a dark T-shirt and Bermuda shorts, met in the early hours of the morning.

He also evokes "a South African DNA, an identity linked to Cape Town".

"We are not trying to copy a French wine", he smiles, slipping a few words into this language, gleaned during the harvest on the Old Continent.

Its chiseled chenins - a white grape characteristic of Loire wines (West of France) - are of great purity.

Its Cartology cuvée, demanded for export, is drunk like no other.

At 6:00 p.m., the sky turned pink.

Chris brings crates to the pickers.

To load them, full, into his refrigerated truck.

The birds chirp, bringing a joyful lightness to the repetitive sound of the secateurs.

"The big sprint of the harvest is over," he says.

"So far I have mostly harvested lively acidity. Now I need a bit of sex appeal, some voluptuous curves" thanks to the grapes that are slightly more ripe.

Chenin expresses a wide range, from very dry to tropical.

"I want fruit but not a pineapple bomb", sums up the energetic winegrower with a childlike blondness in a burst of laughter.

With him no irrigation, no chemistry, no cheating.

His wine is "natural" even if it balks at this classification, like all the others.

"For a wine to catch your imagination, it must be pure. As soon as you suspect dishonesty, you drop out", he said, always in search of accuracy, of balance - "it's subjective" -, of the expression of a place.

His ambition, apparently modest, is ultra-demanding.

He wants power too, but in lace, "that of the gymnast, not that of sumo".

© 2021 AFP