The chapter index appears here the moment the episode is published.

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Ask where South African Pinot Noir comes from and the answer arrives before you have finished the question. Hemel-en-Aarde. Elgin. Somewhere cold, coastal and faintly smug about it. Stellenbosch does not get a mention, because Stellenbosch is Cabernet country, and Pinot Noir grown there is treated as either a mistake or a dare.

This is the dare. The Carinus Pinot Noir 2025 comes off the Upper Devon Valley on well-drained decomposed granite, the same weathered stone behind some of Stellenbosch’s most precise wines, handed here to the least forgiving grape in the world. Nine months in 400-litre old French barrels, which in winemaking terms is standing well back with your hands in your pockets. No new oak to hide behind, no sweetness to smooth the corners.

Whether Stellenbosch has any business growing Pinot Noir at all is exactly the argument. The bottle is the evidence.

But of course, if you have yet to sign up for your Monthly HanDrinksSolo Wine Subscription then you’ll have to hunt this wine down in your own time. But until then, here are my tasting notes and some technical specs:

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My tasting notes go up with the video — I do not publish notes on a wine I have not sat down and recorded properly. The numbers below come straight off the producer’s sheet.

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Grown on well-drained decomposed granite in the Upper Devon Valley, Stellenbosch, and matured nine months in 400-litre old French oak. Large format, nothing new: the barrel lends breath and time rather than flavour.
Alc. 13.5% | Sugar 2.1 g/L | Acid 5.6 g/L | pH 3.57 |