Tim and Vaughan ‘manning our table’ at Amps Fine Wines in Oundle, Northamptonshire, England
Owner of Amps Fine Wines, Philip Amps, braaing his home made Borewors.
Tim pouring our wines
Two very satisfied customers
Amps Fine Wines South African tasting August 2015
Preparation for our 2014 harvest started in October 2012! At that time buds formed on the branches that were to carry the fruit for the 2013 harvest and, through the pruning that followed the harvest, during the winter of 2013, these two-bud spurs were left to develop and nurture the fruit for the 2014 harvest.
This means that as early as last month, October 2013, nature was influencing the quality and quantity of the 2015 harvest. It was rainy, cloudy and humid – not ideal conditions, as it is a sunny period at this time that will contribute to a fruitful harvest. We’ll just have to wait and see what Mother Nature has in store for us.
Our Pinot Noir grapes, the first to be harvested each year, are looking beautiful! The vines have started to flower along with the Chardonnay.
The Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc usually start flowering a little later.
I love the vineyards in spring, they have the most amazing green foliage.
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.
Tim Pearson from Seven Springs Vineyard is to appear on the US radio show ‘Wine Talk with Stu the Wine Guru’ on the 7th of April. This is agreat opportunity for Tim to promote, not only Seven Springs wines, but wines from the Overberg area and from South Africa in general. Although our wines will not be available in the USA until 2011, this was too good an opportunity for us to pass up as we will get excellent internet exposure as well.
John Seccombe with Vaughan and Tim
Seven Springs announced today that it will be making it’s first wines at the award winning Iona Vineyards in Elgin (http://iona.co.za). Before we build a winery we needed somewhere to make our first vintage in 2010 so had to find somewhere to make our debut wines. Iona Vineyards was our first choice and Andrew Gunn, owner of Iona, and John Seccombe, Iona’s winemaker, agreed to allow us to make our wines at this first class winery. Our winemaker, Riana, is looking forward to working with Andrew and John as their expertise will prove invaluable to enable us to produce excellent wines.