The wine

The Ignis is Storm’s take on the terroir of the Upper Hemel en Aarde Valley and one of the two original wines in their range. It was previously called Moyas but was renamed Ignis, the Latin for fire, in recognition of the igneous granite suboils the vineyard stands on. These subsoils combine with a layer of large pebbles above them to create a growing environment that naturally lowers vigour and creates small, well flavoured bunches of grapes. 2015 was an almost ideal growing season with an early harvest and yields coming in at a tiny 16.25hl/ha (only 500g of fruit per vine).

The grapes undergo fermentation with natural yeasts and with careful cap management to ensure Hannes builds just the right structure and tannin into the finished wine. After pressing, using a traditional basket press, the wine is then aged for 11 months in oak with 20% new, 30% second and 50% third fill for 11 months. It was bottled in January 2016 and then aged a further year prior to release. Production here is a tiny 200 cases per year!

The producer

Storm wines is the baby of Hannes Storm and prior to striking on his own for 12 vintages he was...