Robert Parker
RP
93
"With an impeccable focus on the nose, the 2017 Pinot Noir Vrede is red-fruited and aromatically floral with soft orange rind and oak tones layered underneath the fruit. The palate reveals the heart of Pinot Noir in an elegant and true manner. The structure is immaculate, yet seductively light. Medium-bodied the finish is cherried with a feral wildness and strawberry-kissed focus that is really amazing. The wine is still tight and is built for aging, packing a punch wrapped in a glove of silk. 7,500 bottles of Pinot aged for 11 months in Burgundy barrels, 28% being first use barrels."
Decanter
D
95
"Hannes Storm makes three distinctive and very different Pinot Noirs from estate-grown fruit in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley near Hermanus. The Vrede Pinot comes from an elevated vineyard site on shale soils and is very Burgundian in style but with a new world flair. Lush red fruit dominates the nose and palate with cherries and violets dominating before a lick of oak leads to more tertiary characters of soil and tomato leaf. Long and delicious."
