The Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge sits highest, coolest and furthest inland of the valley's three wards, and its Pinot Noir ripens last of all. Hannes Storm's Ridge bottling comes off a cool, stony parcel of clay-rich Bokkeveld shale, and it is the tightest-wound of his three: where his granite sites give lift, the shale gives density, structure and a savory, brooding core. Time in bottle has done the 2019 a great favor, unwinding it into something layered and earthy, with dark red fruit, forest floor, and fine tannins that still have plenty of road ahead of them. Storm works a handful of hectares by hand and bottles almost nothing. This is the serious end of South African Pinot.