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What we’ve been up to.

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We have been very busy here at Seven Springs and it doesn’t look like the sudden winter here in the Overberg is going to slow us down.  If you thought it was still Autumn, well guess again. The leaves might be golden, but the mountain tops are getting their first dusting of powdery white snow.

Benson in the Autumn Syrah vineyards

Benson in the Autumn Syrah vineyards

Recently we had a promotion at a local Italian restaurant, Fabio’s Ristorante, with great success. As part of celebrating the success of the promotion, but also to thank the team at Fabio’s we had a lovely tasting on the farm, even though it was windy.

Annie, Fabio, Wietske and Johan

Annie, Fabio, Wietske and Johan

What a great team and great support from the local community in Hermanus. They are the only authenic Italian restaurant in Hermanus and should be on your list of places to dine, have a look on http://www.fabios.co.za/. Who knows, maybe you can enjoy a glass of Seven Springs when you are there!

We have also been very busy marketing our wines in the Overberg with Swellendam the newest area you can find our wines. Schoone Oordt, a five star guesthouse serving our Chardonnay, Sauvignon blanc and Pinot noir to their patrons. With a great team of people involved in the guesthouse, Swellendam and Schoone Oordt ( http://www.schooneoordt.co.za) is a real gem and worth spending the night if you ever feel like being treated like instant family.  Our wines are also for sale at De Keldermeister in town and on your way to Swellendam you can stop in Riviersonderend and buy our wines at The Wine Rack.

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This week we had our annual Tradeshow with distrubutor Siris Vintners – Siris About Wine. This year the show went underground with the event taking place in the basement of the Upper East Side Hotel, creating an intimate tasting environment where it felt like you were in a barrel cave. Trade and wineries could connect and talk about all things wine. All-in-all a very enjoyable event and successful to boot. We also got to show off the fact that our 2012 Unoaked Chardonnay and 2011 Oaked Chardonnay both won a Bronze Medal at the 2014 Decanter World Wine Awards.

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Siris Tradeshow 2014

Harvest report to follow soon. It was a tough 2014 vintage and I think I’m still recovering like most viticulurists and winemakers in South Africa. Also be on the look out for upcoming news on the building of our own winery and tasting room on the farm. 2014 is a big year for us and it is all thanks to our local and global support, so thank you to you all.

Cheers

Winemaker Riana

 

 

South African #Braaiday Friday – Wine Passionista

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Living in London one thing is certain – you can never count on the weather.  So we plan our picnics in the park and our summer cookouts and keep our fingers crossed it isn’t a washout.  Sometimes we get lucky and others, well…we don’t let a little rain dampen our spirits.  Nowhere was this more evident than at a brilliant lunch hosted recently by the Wines of South Africa (WOSA).

The invitation was to a #braaiday lunch (complete with hashtag for those avid Twitterers amongst us!) and said:

Read the full story on The Wine Passionista

Seven Springs the video

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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.

Seven Springs Sauvignon Blanc goes on sale

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Our Sauvignon Blanc is now on sale in South Africa from Cybercellar (www.cybercellar.com) and The Wine Village, Hermanus (www.winevillage.co.za).  400 cases were collected on Wednesday afternoon for shipping to the United Kingdom.

Article in Rate That Restaurant in South Africa

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Seven Springs Vineyard has just had a question and answer article published in the South African restaurant guide, www.ratethatrestaurant.co.za, on 21st September 2010. Tim Pearson was interviewed by Bradley Crewe-Brown from the magazine giving some insight into Seven Springs and his hopes for the future. Bradley interviewed Gordon Ramsay earlier in the year when he visited the Cape but in Tims interview you will find less expletives! The full story can be read by following this link.  http://www.ratethatrestaurant.co.za/seven-springs-vineyard/

Seven Springs Vineyard bottles Sauvignon Blanc

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Our first wine

Friday the 6th of August 2010 is a momentous day in the history of Seven Springs Vineyard as it was the day we bottled our first ever wines, our 2010 Sauvignon Blanc. A total of 4,300 bottles of the wine were bottled at Iona Vineyards, www.iona.co.za, in Elgin. Our wines will spend a couple of weeks recovering from ‘bottle shock’, then be labelled and made available for sale within South Africa and the UK.

Seven Springs Vineyard appears in leading South African wine site

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Seven Springs Vineyard has just had another article published in leading South African online wine site, BottlePlatePillow. The site, www.bottleplatepillow.com, aims to give visitors accurate information on all South African wine farms. This will allow people to find detailed information on each farm to make their visit to each winery more memorable. Information such as whether there is a restaurant or accommodation on the farm, up to date news on wineries, special vineyard events, special offers and much much more. BottlePlatePillow site creator, Charles Lourens, has produced an excellent site which we are sure will become as much part of the South African wine experience as the Platter South African Wine Guide, www.johnplatterguide.com. Go directly to the report here http://www.bottleplatepillow.com/blog/seven-springs-vineyard-from-the-beginning-by-tim-pearson/

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

Seven Springs winemaker to work harvest in Oregon

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Riana in a stainless steel fermentation tank, digging 'must'.

Seven Springs Vineyard is pleased to announce that Riana van der Merwe, our winemaker, is to work at leading Oregon winery, Adelsheim Vineyard, http://www.adelsheim.com,  for the 2010 harvest. This is a great opportunity for Riana to work with a leading U.S. winery producing top Pinot Noirs. The experience will give Riana an insight into leading northern hemisphere Pinot Noir production, especially as our young Pinot vines are nearing maturity.