South Africa ( Hemel en Aarde Road PO Box 1772 Hermanus 7200 South Africa )
Walker Bay is Located on the South coast of the Western Cape, a couple of hours drive from Cape town. Hemel-en-Aarde (which means ``heaven and earth`` in the Afrikaans language) is a wine-producing area of Walker Bay. Creation wines are situated high up the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge near Hermanus. The vines climb the steep hills of Babylon Toren Mountain to a lofty altitude of 350 metres above sea level.
Jean-Claude (JC) and Carolyn Martin in 2002 took up the challenge of establishing a winery in a remote corner of the Walker Bay Wine Region. Generous sunlight, 450-million-year-old clay loam soils with decomposed Bokkeveld shale and the cool breezes blowing in from the nearby Atlantic Ocean made JC and Caroline to exchange the wine lands of Switzerland for those of South Africa. It also meant the planting of vines in virgin land where there had only been sheep pastures before, and building a cellar and tasting facilities from scratch. They made their little piece of paradise which proudly celebrates its place among the 50 top wineries selected at the inaugural 2019 World’s Best Vineyards (WBV) awards. They are one of only nine wineries in South Africa to have received the coveted EnviroWines accreditation.
Swiss-trained winemaker, JC Martin, completed his viticultural studies in 1991 at Wadenswil before qualifying as a winemaker at the Swiss Federal School of Changins in 1995. These qualifications provided what he still regards to be a firm and ideal grounding – viticulture first, then winemaking. Today the talented JC boasts 15 years’ international experience; expertise he brings to bear transforming nature’s rich bounty into wines reflecting the unique terroir.
