It was a dark and stormy night, and I was at a gaudy Polish wedding as the skies broke, unleashing havoc. The date, to be exact, was 4 March 2023. And while the Poles downed frozen vodka shots, boding the groom and bride well with guttural cries of well-wishes in their abrasive native lingo, I was worrying about the rain and vineyards. Reason being, the wedding in question was at Newton Johnson Vineyards in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, and pelting, relentless rain of that nature could, surely, not be good for the Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and other grapes hanging on the vines, days before harvest.
The signs of a potential vinous disaster were there for all to see, even if you were Polish and had just taken your 11th shot of bison grass vodka.
Reflecting on vintage 2023 in the three Hemel-en-Aarde wards, it was a sodden affair. About 300mm of rain fell in the last week of February and first week of March alone, bursting ripe fruit, diluting berries and making the harvesting process a mud-bath. But, being wine women and men of the Cape, trials and tribulations and challenges are there to be met and to be endured. To be engaged with, and to be managed. For the spirit is immortal, physical affronts being but passing.
So, harvesting schedules were re-assessed, and plans made. In the vintage of 2023, human thought and guile; imagination and ambition were for winemakers just as important as the wonts of nature that had led to those damply ripened grapes. Mud on the tracks, concern in the heart.
As fortune would have it, the rain-gods were sending down lashings of assertive precipitation during a recent visit to Newton Johnson Vineyards, although the Polish crowd were no longer there and this glorious piece of Upper Hemel-en-Aarde real estate had returned to its picturesque, pastoral tranquility. The rain was accompanied by an icy wind from the north-west, sending the thin, sombre grey clouds cantering down the valley and making the raw morning an ideal condition for drinking Pinot Noir, of which Newton Johnson is of this region’s finest producers.
Although there are a few wines to choose from in the winery’s Pinot Noir range, my go to is the Family Vineyards, the current offering of which is from the aforementioned stormy, daunting vintage 2023.
Newton Johnson Pinot Noir has a very characteristic profile in its deft balance between the delicate and the commanding. The address is a major factor, obviously. Granite soils and vines set from 200m above sea-level on north-east and south-east facing slopes, combined with the overriding cool climate one finds between four and eight kilometres from the sea, create intriguing multi-faceted geography where the vineyards are set.
Air-flows from the ocean in spring are off-set by still, days in summer which see the ripening grapes capture the sun’s heart, giving the ripe fruit a glow. The vines slope, too, between 12% and 16%, allowing for an interplay of sunlight radiation, resulting in a diverse palette of structures and personalities in the ripened grapes.
The earthly matter in which the Pinot Noir is grown here is complemented by the fact that the variety is a part of the human terroir, that other vital aspect of all great wineries. Pater familia and founder Dave Newton Johnson entered the wine-life largely due to his fascination with Pinot Noir, and the fixation lives on through his sons Gordon, winemaker, and Bevan, CEO and the brand’s voice in the market.
With the necessary boxes of agreed Cape Pinot Noir royalty ticked, it is thus no surprise finding the Newton Johnson Family Vineyards Pinot Noir from the disruptive 2023 vintage to be a superlative wine bearing the pedigreed typicity this winery has become renowned for.
On the nose there is a text-book ruffled, exotic waft of spice emanating from a secure line of late pink fruit blossoms, orchard like and life-affirming. The aroma, intoxicating, sets the scene in reminding one why there are, truly, only three types of wine: red, white and Pinot Noir. (Disclosure: the quote belongs to the great Danie de Wet.)
On the palate, concentration of fruit taste is palpable, yet the broad density of flavour is supported by tannin instead of being dominated by it – even in this wine’s relative youth. This feature says a lot about the raw material, as the stuff spends quite some time on the skins during maceration and spontaneous fermentation, some 25 days to be precise. Yet, the skins and pips are apparently of such a fragile, coy nature they gently sing tannin into the wine, instead of shouting it, allowing the verve and charm of pure, vivacious Pinot Noir fruit to come to the fore.
This makes the palate awash with warm, overripe strawberry offset by a slight pungent wad of damson. Cherry is there, too, but not the gob-puckering sour kind, just a hint of crispness and crunch among the expressive fruit character. It is awash in brilliant flavour and succulence, but what I always find in Newton Johnson Pinot Noir is a slight finely powdered dryness, just a tuft of withered fynbos to give the fruit an edge and to leave a pondering thought on the mind, and a wonder in the soul.
Things that, after all, Pinot Noir was made for, setting it poles apart from other wines.
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