MICHAEL FRIDJHON | Hamilton Russell wines retain their Cape royalty status

When the Hamilton Russell road show hits Gauteng, which it does every year or two, a tidal wave of retailers, sommeliers, writers, and influencers emerges to sample the wines. This is as it should be.

The Hamilton Russell brand is Cape royalty, one of the key forces that shaped the modern wine industry. It remains a name far above the hurly-burly of shelf-space wars, a source of fine wine rather than a retail commodity.

The wines — many of which are too expensive to be considered a frivolous purchase — are obviously the main (but not the only) attraction at the tasting; the proprietor himself is there, thoughtful, often vigorously opinionated, and always ready to engage. This distinguishes him from most proprietors of other equally prestigious and “unobtainable” wines: very few producers who can realistically claim to sit in the same segment of the market ever deal directly with the trade. They send out their allocations and leave buyers to decide whether to take up their quota.

Hamilton Russell could do the same, at least for his pinot noir and chardonnay: production is limited, and the supply is spread thin in more than 60 international markets. It would be easy enough to let relative rarity drive the sales. But Anthony Hamilton Russell, who in the early 1990s took over the business started by his father, is too much of a marketing man and too much of a showman to risk his brand’s momentum.

Now in his early sixties, with a career in business (stints in banking/finance, as well as at Bain & Company in London) before wine farming seduced him, Anthony is one of the industry’s most charismatic figures. Unashamedly patrician and yet surprisingly self-effacing and self-revealing, he is clear about the vision that drives each of the wineries he owns and manages.

Hamilton Russell Vineyards is the Cape’s answer to cool-climate burgundy-style viticulture. That was what his late father conjured up as a marketing slogan, but never actually applied. Anthony stripped away whatever was extraneous to the message and got on with honing the wines to fit the brief. Southern Right does pinotage (about which Anthony is curiously passionate) and sauvignon blanc. Ashbourne also offers only two wines, an ultrapremium pinotage and a thoughtfully conceived and finely assembled white blend from vineyards on sandstone soils.

Since Hamilton Russell père launched the winery almost 50 years ago, the property has had only a handful of winemakers, almost all of whom went on to make a reputation for themselves in their own cellars (Peter Finlayson at Bouchard Finlayson, Kevin Grant at Ataraxia, and Hannes Storm at Storm). You might imagine, given the undisputed reputation of the Hamilton Russell Old Boys’ Club, that Emul Ross (who took over the winemaking in 2014) might have struggled to carve a niche for himself. Instead, he has delivered an impressive step-up to every one of the wines.

The 2025 Hamilton Russell pinot noir is comfortably the best of the modern releases (helped, it must be said, by an extraordinary vintage). The 2025 chardonnay is equally striking, though it will need more time than the pinot to settle down to fit into its frame. The Ashbourne Pinotage, which at about R1,000 per bottle is the most expensive of all the Hamilton Russell wines, delivers intensity, aromas of turned earth and dark cherries, savouriness and persistence. It hints more at the variety’s burgundy origins than most of the wines against which it competes. The Ashbourne Sandstone white is textural, plush (rather than opulent), multilayered and well worth its R350+ price point.

Both of the latest Southern Right releases are splendid. The pinotage is more exuberant than the Ashbourne, but not clumsy or coarse. The 2025 sauvignon blanc is masterly, fragrant and harmonious, aromatically more mown hay than cut grass. On the palate there’s an almost explosive delivery of Jackson grapefruit, grenadilla and lime zest. If sauvignon blanc is your wine of choice, you’ll struggle to find a better way to spend R180.

Business Day