An article about Seven Springs Vineyard and our wines by Poppy Seymour-Hall, our UK importer with Belle Epoque Wines – http://www.belle-epoque-life.com/ . Our story and our wines, thank you Poppy.
http://www.placesandfaces.co.uk/articles/914/love-at-first-sip.html
Posted May 14, 2012 by Tim | No Comments »
Riana and Hetta decided to try out Michael Olivier’s recipe for Grilled Calamari Tubes served on Risotto Cakes, which he created to be a fantastic food match to our Seven Springs Sauvignon Blanc.
Let us tell you more about it.
Hetta said it was a joy cooking a recipe from this renowned South African chef and tv personality whilst drinking our Sauvignon Blanc. The evening turned out to be a great success.
As for the music, we went for a 70′s theme, starting off with “I just can’t help believing” by BJ Thomas. It made me think of cold nights in front of a warm fire, long before I knew how to appreciate a bottle of good wine, said Hetta.
Riana van der Merwe is not only an excellent winemaker, she can do her thing in the kitchen too. We started off with the Risotto, which you can see cooking at the back left of the above picture.
Art Garfunkel - “I shall sing”! The Seven Springs Sauvignon Blanc with this meal, really so good that you want to sing about it.
As someone once said: “I love cooking with wine and sometimes I even add some to the food”. Sorry Michael Olivier, we just had to add a little to the risotto. Gerry Monroe - “It’s a sin to tell a lie.”
The Risotto cakes looked scrumptious and after the Calamari marinated in it’s special dressing for about 3 hours, it could only be absolutely divine with our Sauvignon Blanc.
As you can see in the picture, we didn’t use Calamari tubes, but rings, because we couldn’t get any tubes. These rings were still ever so soft and complimented the delicate lasting finish of the Sauvignon Blanc. The tangy dressing of the calamari brought out the fruity flavours of the wine.
Thanks to Michael Olivier’s great recipe, we had a wonderful evening and it matched our wine perfectly! www.michaelolivier.co.za
In the background Neil Diamond, “I am I said”.
Words by Hetta, photos by Hetta and husband Simon.
Posted May 1, 2012 by Tim | No Comments »
One of biggest ‘fans’ is wine blogger and social media expert, ‘Wisequeen’ Donna Jackson. South African by birth, but much travelled, Donna now lives near Lake Como in Italy where she conducts her business. Having met Donna at last years London International Wine Fair we have subsequently built up a friendly rapport with her. You can find out more about Donna from her Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1622558790
Here is Donna’s blog about us – thank you Donna, this is very much appreciated.
Posted April 15, 2012 by Tim | 1 Comment »
Posted March 27, 2012 by Tim | No Comments »
Pinot Noir clones 459 and 115 were ready and picked by Friday 17 February 2012 and the grapes arrived at the cellar in good condition!
Back -David Middle -Left - Marshall, Centre - Bonani Front - Uys & Greg
Workers are ready and all excited to start sorting the grapes!
Getting the de-stemmer ready. This machine removes the berries from the stems of the grape bunch. The stems get discarded and the berries get pressed before it goes into the fermentation tank.
The grapes are always handled with care, from picking to the last sorting on the sorting table. Here any grapes that are not up to standard will be discarded.
At the sorting table good care is taken that not a single substandard grape slips through those fingers.
Grape pickers and grape sorters alike enjoy being in the vineyards and around the cellar, doing what they do best, working with the grapes!
“Let me take that one out! It’s not good enough to go to the tank.” Winemaker, Riana, making sure that only the best Pinot Noir grapes end up in the tank.
The discarded stems of the grape bunches are not forgotten, they get taken away to the compost heap where they will then get recycled back into the vineyards.
All crates are carefully washed, rinsed and stacked till the next picking.
Young, but perfect Pinot Noir grapes just off the sorting table and on the way to the tank. Before going into the tank our grapes go through a mash-cooler. This brings the temperature of the crushed grapes down to 15 degrees Celcius before they go into a process called cold soaking.
Grapes and juice, called the must, in the tank, ready to start natural fermentation after three days of cold soaking. After the alcoholic/first fermentation is done you now have wine. Next is the malolactic/second fermentation and from there our wine will be transferred to 2nd and 3rd fill French Oak barrels where it will spend approximately 10 months.
See you soon with an update on our Chardonnay!
Posted February 22, 2012 by Tim | No Comments »
Valentine’s Day? Yes, but also and most important, harvest time at 7 Springs Vineyard, where our grapes get tender loving care, as you would treat your Valentine!
We have 4 Pinot Noir clones of which two were harvested today, clones 667 and 777. These two will give the fresh fruit component to the wine.
Clones 459 and 115 will be picked as and when they reach their full ripeness and they will make out the structural component to our Pinot Noir.
Everybody ready for action!
Our Pinot Noir vines are now in their 4th year, still very young, and as a result the volumes are still small, so the grapes harvested today will ferment together in the same tank.
Some old hands working here, good care is taken not to squash any grapes!
Our grape pickers enjoy what they are doing and they have a real
passion for this job!
Hats will protect from the sun as the day progresses!
Another perfect bunch of Pinot Noir!
Riana (winemaker) and Peter (vineyard manager) discussing the progress.
The grapes are transported to the winery in the same crates they were gently harvested into. The gentler the grapes get handled the less breakage there is of the berries. This way we make sure we get the best results from our wonderful grapes.
Watch this space and see how our grapes transform into wine!
Posted February 16, 2012 by Tim | No Comments »
We have recently introduced Neutron Moisture Guages into our vineyards at Seven Springs. What this will do is to allow us to measure very accurately the ground moisture in all parts of our vineyards. Thus we can irrigate our vines at the optimum time and apply the exact amount of water required to maintain healthy plant growth. Our water comes from boreholes drilled into Shaws Mountain behind our vineyards, using underground streams. Accurate measurement of the ground moisture it will allow us to use our water resources responsibly ensuring increased fruit quality. We are working closely with Bokkeveld Besproeiing ( http://www.irrinet.net/ ) who have developed the software programmes for measuring soil moisture. The company is jointly owned by Piet van der Merwe, who is father of our winemaker Riana, and Jac Le Roux, with Piet being responsible for running the business in South Africa. The company specialises in irrigation scheduling for fruit, citrus, perrenials, lavendar, olives, table grapes and, of course, wine grapes. Accurate measurements and targeted irrigation (we can apply water to individual parts of our vineyards) will allow us to produce the optimum size and quality of grape which in turn will allow us to make first class wines. We are on a quest to produce some of the best wines in South Africa and this is one way we can help manage that process.
Posted December 15, 2011 by Tim | No Comments »
Our 2010 Syrah and Chardonnay went on sale in South Africa in November 2011. This review is from Glenda Van Blerk from Cape Town Wine. We are really excited about the quality of all three of our first wines, our 2010 Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Syrah.
http://capetownwineblog.com/2011/11/new-releases-from-seven-springs-vineyard/
Posted December 7, 2011 by Tim | No Comments »
This super video, taken in our vineyards and surrounds, has just gone live on YouTube. The video was made by the talented Charles Lourens of http://www.bottleplatepillow.com . We are really pleased as the video truly conveys what we at Seven Springs are all about. Thank you Charles, you have done us proud.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT3WeAz5z7c
Posted December 3, 2011 by Tim | No Comments »
Our 2010 Chardonnay has recently been released for sale in South Africa. We only made 2,100 bottles of this wine and bottled it on the 18th of January 2011. This is a review of the wine by Charles Lourens of Bottle Plate Pillow.
Posted October 26, 2011 by Tim | No Comments »
Hermanus | Western Cape | South Africa | +44 (0) 79 683 32454 | info@7springs.co.za
