Ashbourne
The estate where Hemel-en-Aarde's Pinot pioneer went hunting for a different grape — a stony, clay-rich site next door to Hamilton Russell, a serious single Pinotage, and the first South African wine ever fermented in amphora. Here's the pair to taste and why they work.
Everyone comes to the Hemel-en-Aarde for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Ashbourne is what happened when the man most responsible for that reputation went looking for something else. This is Anthony Hamilton Russell's other project — a separate estate on a stony, clay-rich property bordering Hamilton Russell Vineyards — and its whole reason to exist is to prove two grapes belong in this cold valley that the tourist map ignores.
The pair: a genuinely serious Pinotage, and a white blend made in clay pots that rewrote a small piece of Cape history.
Why here, why these grapes
The logic is the same one that made the neighbour famous, aimed at different fruit. This corner of Hemel-en-Aarde sits on decomposed shale that weathers into stony, clay-rich soil — the kind of cool, mean ground that holds a vine back and forces flavour into low yields. Hamilton Russell used it to make Burgundy's grapes sing. Ashbourne uses it to make the case that South Africa's own grape, given the same discipline, can be just as serious.
That's a pointed argument. Pinotage carries a reputation for sweetness and coffee-mocha excess at the bottom of the market. Ashbourne answers it by treating the grape with the exact rigour usually reserved for a classed-growth red.
The Pinotage that argues back
Start with the red. Grown on those clay soils and built for structure, the Ashbourne Pinotage comes dark, savoury and firm — a wine about length and tension rather than sweetness and oak. It's cut to age, and it sits closer in spirit to a fine, brooding Rhône or a serious Cape red than to anything with a coffee note.
This is Pinotage as a fine wine, not a party trick. Pour it for a sceptic and watch the argument change.
Give it time in the glass, and time in the cellar if you can. It rewards patience the way the serious reds of the neighbourhood do.
The white that made history
Then the Sandstone — and here's the piece of trivia that's actually meaningful. It was the first South African wine ever fermented and aged in amphora, the ancient clay vessels now back in fashion for the way they build texture and grip without the flavour a barrel would add. A Sauvignon-led blend rounded out with Chardonnay and Semillon, it drinks like a proper, textured white wine rather than a zippy varietal pour: broad, saline, savoury, quietly ambitious.
It's the more surprising of the two bottles, and the one that tells you the most about the thinking here — a willingness to try the unfashionable thing and make it work.
Visiting
Treat Ashbourne as part of a full Hemel-en-Aarde day rather than a standalone pilgrimage. It sits within the same cluster of cellars that includes its famous neighbour, so it slots naturally into a route through the valley. Tastings run by appointment; the visit may be arranged alongside Hamilton Russell, so check how it's currently handled before you set out. Go for the contrast — after a morning of Pinot and Chardonnay, a serious Pinotage and an amphora white are exactly the jolt a tasting day needs. Confirm the current arrangements on the estate's own site before you travel.
What to buy
One bottle home? Make it the Ashbourne Pinotage — the wine that carries the whole argument, and one that only improves with a few years down. If you take a second, make it the Sandstone: a genuinely distinctive white with a place in the country's wine history, and the more talked-about bottle at any table. Together they're the neatest possible summary of what this estate is for — proof that the Hemel-en-Aarde has more than two great grapes in it.
Common questions
Anthony Hamilton Russell — the same figure behind the benchmark Pinot Noir and Chardonnay estate next door. Ashbourne is his separate project on a property bordering Hamilton Russell Vineyards, founded to chase a different set of grapes: Pinotage and a distinctive white blend, rather than the Burgundian pair that made his name.
A textured white blend — Sauvignon Blanc led, with Chardonnay and Semillon — and a piece of South African wine history: it was the first Cape wine to be fermented and aged in amphora, the ancient clay vessels now fashionable again for the way they build texture without adding oak. It drinks more like a serious white than a simple varietal wine.
No, and that's the point. This is Pinotage taken seriously — grown on cool, clay-rich Hemel-en-Aarde soils and built for structure and length rather than the sweet, coffee-mocha caricature the grape is known for at the cheap end. It sits far closer in spirit to a fine, savoury red than to a crowd-pleaser.
Glossary
- Amphora
- A large clay fermenting and ageing vessel, used since antiquity and revived by modern winemakers. Porous clay lets a wine breathe and builds texture without the flavour that oak barrels add. Ashbourne Sandstone was the first South African wine made this way.
- Pinotage
- South Africa's own grape, a 1925 crossing of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut. Divisive at the cheap end, but capable of real seriousness on the right cool site — as Ashbourne sets out to prove.