Bartho Eksteen Fluister Pinot Noir 2021 Hemel-en-Aarde, Western Cape, South Africa 75cl

Bartho Eksteen is one of the Cape’s most respected winemakers and educators, based in Hermanus on the cool south coast. His own label is small and personal, made with a light hand and a clear love of fresh, food-friendly styles, and it carries a real sense of the man behind it.

Fluister, meaning whisper in Afrikaans, is a fitting name for this Pinot Noir. Grown in the cool Hemel-en-Aarde area, where sea breezes keep the fruit fresh, it is made in a gentle, transparent style that puts elegance ahead of power. A modest 12% alcohol keeps everything light on its feet, a wine that murmurs rather than shouts.

The 2021 vintage was a cool, favourable one along the south coast, holding acidity and giving perfumed, well-balanced reds. That freshness shows clearly here, in a wine that feels bright and lifted rather than dense or heavy.

Pale and pretty in the glass, it offers red cherry, wild strawberry, a touch of forest floor and a fine dusting of spice. Light-bodied and silky, with soft tannins and a fresh, savoury finish, it is Pinot Noir in its more ethereal, drink-with-a-chill mode. This is charm rather than muscle.

Serve it lightly chilled with duck, mushroom risotto or roast chicken, where its delicacy is an asset rather than a limitation. If you lean towards cool-climate Burgundy or a fine-boned New Zealand Pinot, this understated Hemel-en-Aarde bottling will feel like familiar and welcome territory. It is proof that lightness and seriousness can share the same glass.