Of wine and weeds: How Hemel en Aarde achieved winemaking success It's not called Hemel en Aarde for nothing. This fertile valley nestled between arid mountains and cool ocean is a winemaking paradise. It’s not for nothing that South Africa’s Hemel en Aarde valley has carved out a global reputation a winemaking destination of note. The region’s wines have become a hit among wine lovers seeking a fresh, distinctive flavour. And winemakers here do not try to imitate the big European names, which can often be a stifling benchmark. Instead, they produce wines with a strong South African identity — wines whose savour tells the story of their distant birthplace and bring with them the heritage from the first Huguenot plantations in the 1600s.