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Restless River

For some unforgivable reason, this was my first visit to Craig Wessel’s Restless River estate in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde. It is a remarkable story of creating a winery from virtually nothing. Having pursued other careers in their former life, Anne and Craig Wessel relocated to this unspoiled valley and bought fallow land to build their own house. “I’m untrained and uneducated,” Wessels admits as we briefly tour his vines. He’s no alumni of Stellenbosch University and essentially learned on the job. “I started in 2004 when I bought a small parcel of my ancestor’s farm [one Wessel Wessels, who settled here in 1760 and purportedly gave Hemel-en-Aarde its name]. Some of the vines are now almost 25 years old, and we will have 10 hectares of new plantings.” Wessels launched their Restless River in 2012, his wife handling the business side, Craig getting dirt under his fingernails. It is a conscious decision not to blend – I like the Burgundy single variety model. I am also retraining vines from Cordon to Guyot. I use two Vaslin presses made in the seventies for the whites and repaired two Massey tractors myself. The Chardonnay is pressed whole bunch with no SO2 additions or enzymes. I start with an oxidative way of working, but it is reductive after that, maturing some of the Chardonnay in amphorae.” What sets Restless River apart from other estates in the valley is Cabernet Sauvignon. Wessel’s mentioned that he initially met a couple of barbed comments about when he was going to see the light and plant Burgundy varieties like everyone else, but he stuck to his guns and has no regrets. His Cabernets are for those that like a bit of Old World classicism with a soupçon of greenness that Wessel welcomes. The high points for me are his Chardonnays that offer real Burgundian allure and is occasionally Volnaysian Pinot Noirs.

From Growing Up ‘n Getting Wiser: South Africa in 2022 (Sep 2022) by Neal Martin

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2020 Chardonnay Ava Marie

Color: White

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