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London International Wine Fair May 20th 2010 – part 2

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Day 2 – Thursday May 20th – The second day began with Kim and Tim meeting with Jo Wehring, UK Market Manager  for  Wines of South Africa (WOSA),  www.wosa.co.za. Jo discussed ways that WOSA could be of a help to us in helping to eastablish our brand / wines here in the UK. WOSA were also hosting a South African Chenin Blanc tasting which highlighted the success that South Africa is having with this versatile varietal. Onwards to a tasting on the Seckfords Agencies stand,  www.seckfordagencies.co.uk, for the second time with Peter Finlayson where we tasted his complete range of stunning wines. Here we were joined again by Tara O’Leary, http://winepassionista.com/, and Lynda Harvey, www.thewineplace.co.uk. Lynda has been a keen follower of Seven Springs Vineyard and is opening a wine shop in Berkshire in the near future. We then spent some time looking at different screw enclosures for future use with our wines. After a brief lunch we met with ex sommelier Richard Mitton from Worthing who hopes to set up a wine shop in Sussex later this year. Our next port of call was a tasting with Hein Koegelenberg, http://heinkoegelenberg.typepad.com/blog/, CEO of La Motte, www.la-motte.com, and owner of Leopards Leap Wines, www.leopards-leap.com. Hein gave us a fantastic tour of the La Motte winery when we were in the Cape in March and again tasting his range of wines here confirmed them as real class acts. The Pierneef range in particular standing out, if you like syrah / shiraz then get your hands on a bottle or two of these wines. Lastly, but not least, we tasted the wines from the De Wetshof Estate from Robertson, www.dewetshof.com. Brothers Peter, winemaker, and Johan de Wet, Sales and Marketing, are well known to us and their range of Chardonnays are always well received.

We left the show tired but encouraged. The band of South African wine producers are a great bunch of people and we feel proud to become one of them.

London International Wine Fair May 19th 2010 – part 1

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DAY 1 – Wednesday May 19th – Our annual pilgrimage to the London International Wine Fair proved to be very positive again for Seven Springs Vineyard. On Wednesday Vaughan and Tim attended the event and met with a good friend of Seven Springs, David Derbyshire aka  http://oenotype.blogspot.com/, and we spent most of the day going around the show with him. Some of the highlights of the day saw us catch up with our old friend Ken Forrester of  www.kenforresterwines.com and we sampled his fantastic range of Chenin Blanc’s culminating with the fabulous FMC. Moving on we then met with Liesl Rust and Paul Cluver of www.cluver.com and tasted the wonderful wines they produce from the Elgin region of South Africa. Try their Noble Late Harvest Riesling, one of South Africa’s best sweet wines (along with Ken Forrester’s T and Mullineux’s Straw Wine). We then met with near neighbour Peter Finlayson of www.bouchardfinlayson.co.za  and tasted his stunning range of wines, flagship Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Hemel en Aarde Valley.  Then we moved on to see The Wine Gang, www.thewinegang.com, where all the ‘gang’ were there Olly Smith, Tom Cannavan, Tim Atkin MW, Antony Rose and Joanna Simon. They hosted a stand displaying their top 100 wines based on their top scoring wines of the last 12 months. Highlight of this visit was Antony Rose attempting the hoola hoop…ring a ring a rose! Whilst tasting some of the wines we met our friend Chris Mullineux, http://mullineuxwines.com/, who was paying a flying visit to the show between trips to California and the south of France. Then we met with Tara O’Leary aka http://winepassionista.com/, Tara being the first person to write an article on Seven Springs Vineyard. After lunch we spent time with our brand designer Marcel de Quervain of www.curv8.com and spent the afternoon with him.  David then introduced us to Rowan Gormley of www.nakedwines.com. Rowan has asked if he can taste our wines once they are bottled as he would be interested, if the wines are of a good quality, in adding Seven Springs to his impressive portfolio of South African wines. We then met up with daughter Kim who spent the last two hours with us culminating in a  tasting of the legendary Simonsig Estate, www.simonsig.co.za , where we spoke with owner Pieter Malan and tasted their lovely range of wines. Fabulous Chenin Blanc’s as always from Simonsig..their recently bottled 2010 is a very fruity and vibrant example of this variety.  Vaughan then drove back to Warwickshire and Kim, Marcel and Tim headed off for a curry and a bottle of Cobra. Who should we bump into at the curry house?…none other than Pieter Malan from Simonsig….a small world indeed. Then off to bed, ready for Thursday and day 2.

Vaughan and David Derbyshire at the Wine Gang stand, LIWF 2010