Seven Springs: an interesting new South African Sauvignon

sauvignon blanc south africa

Seven Springs: an interesting new South African Sauvignon

Seven Springs is a new South African producer, located just outside the current boundaries of the Hemel en Aarde region near Hermanus. This is their debut wine, one of just 4400 bottles of Sauvignon Blanc. Chardonnay, Syrah and Pinot Noir are to follow. British couple Tim and Vaughan Pearson are behind Seven Springs, and winemaking is in the hands of Riana van de Merwe. Because the winery isn’t yet finished, this first wine was made at Iona in conjunction with Iona’s winemaker John Seccombe. It’s a brilliant start.

Seven Springs Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2010 Overberg, South Africa
13.5% alcohol. From a newly planted vineyard just outside Hemel-en-Aarde on shale soils. Pure aromatics with some rich pear and peach notes as well as citrus freshness. The palate is concentrated and fresh with nice ripeness and some citrus and grapefruit freshness to counter the ripe notes. This is a sophisticated wine of real quality, showing superb balance and lovely purity of fruit, with no greenness. 90/100

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23 Comments on Seven Springs: an interesting new South African SauvignonTagged ,
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23 thoughts on “Seven Springs: an interesting new South African Sauvignon

  1. Wow how can I reply to this!!!!! I just wish to say thank you very much Jamie. To say that Vaughan and I are chuffed is an understatement. It is comments and reviews like this that will drive us on to produce other quality wines from what we believe to be an excellent vineyard site. A big thank you.
    Tim Pearson
    Seven Springs Vineyard
    http://7springs.co.za

  2. Thank you Keith. I really appreciate your comments as well as you are not a person to ‘mince your words’. The Chardonnay really does look very good, we bottled it on the 18th of January. I want to ‘release’ the wine when it has settled in the bottle. We used 2nd and 3rd fill oak barrels to mature the wine in, so it is ‘lightly oaked’.

  3. We in South Africa also think it’s a brilliant Sauvignon Blanc as many newly released wines are very acidic. Tim’s wine is really smooth and will develop more complexity with keeping

  4. Jamie:

    Tim and family are great people who have taken their passion for life, and turned it into a passion for wine. I could not agree more with your assessment. when I reviewed this great Sauv as one of the first in the U.S. to do so, http://tinyurl.com/353z9nw I would add, I think they are poised to be a wine force to be reckoned with in South Africa, as well as the world market. Only good wishes for this UK meets SA vintner for the future. I will be watching and tasting and reviewing them with great joy. You can also listen to my interview with Tim from last year on my show talking about creating this very wine, what its like to be a new vintner and much more at http://tinyurl.com/4epkkqn Cheers Jamie- STWG

  5. Yes – it’s good – for a first wine – very good – BUT to my palate the Dog Point in Marlborough NZ is far far superior – much cleaner, fresher and crisp gooseberry fruit. – same price as well – that’s the key.

  6. I really look forward to tasting this, but haven’t seen it yet up in Gauteng where I live. In the last twenty years I really haven’t tasted any Sauvignon from the Walker Bay area that could consistently compete with the likes of Elim, Constantia, Durbanville, Darling, Cape Point or even Elgin (where, like Walker Bay, their Chardonnays are superior to their Sauvignons, despite having a popular reputation to the contrary). Producers like Southern Right and Creation make decent enough Sauvignon in Walker Bay, but a Crystallum grabbed my attention to such an extent recently that it’s responsible for me having more interest in tasting the Seven Springs offering than I normally would.
    By the way, I find the current fashion to try and make gentle Sauvignons a bit like trying to convert Hannibal Lecter into a vegetarian. Where’s the gentle in Sauvage? Rather give me complexity, minerality, ageability and balance (but balance that allows for true-to-cultivar higher natural acids and real personality, including – yes – pyrazines). The thing is that these big boys deserve time to show their best and are often slated by people who taste them before they’re remotely ready.

  7. William, thanks for your comments on our Sauvignon Blanc. As Jamie said Dog Point produce (as do many NZ producers of Sauvignon Blanc) an excellent example of the variety. And yes their vines are older than ours and the style is different.

    Kwispedoor, we only have 2,000 bottles for sale in South Africa and in Gauteng, at the moment, you can only get the wine online. You mention the Crystallum Sauvignon Blanc made by Peter-Allan Finlayson. His grapes are sourced very close to our vineyard and our styles are quite similar. Peter-Allan is a super young winemaker and his Chardonnays (sourced from grapes next door to ours) and Pinot Noirs are superb also. We have only allowed the grapes to express their true self….so the tropical flavours and the balanced of the wine is not manufactured. The only thing we did was to give the wine a little more time on the lees. We are situated 3 kilometres down the road from Creation (towards Caledon).
    I appreciate both of your comments.
    Tim

  8. Tim – good on you – I can see you’re a nice chap – as a first wine your Sauvignon is truly impressive I must say.

  9. Hi William, thank you very much for your comments, they do make a real difference. I know that here in the UK we are going to compete on a world stage with our wines and that was why I was prepared to send our Sauvignon Blanc to expert wine reviewers such as Jamie. I also realise that people are going to compare our wine with their favourite Sauvignon Blanc, whether it be from France, New Zealand, Chile or South Africa. I was not even going to make a wine from last years grapes as the vines were only in their 3rd year, but the quality was excellent and we limited our yield. No, it is not the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world but it is certainly not the worst. I take it from your comments you live here in the UK.

  10. YES – In Buckinghamshire – I have the truly great honour of having Jamie come round my house and drink all of my “Fine Wine” on a regular basis – see the video of us doing a blind champagne tasting on New Year’s eve last year.

  11. Thanks AJ, I am following your tweets as well. Just get out there and get a bottle (or 6) and you can join in with the comments.

    William you lucky chap having Jamie drinking your fine wine….can you please post me an invite next time 😉 I live near Stratford upon Avon…so maybe a bit far. I will have a look at that video.

  12. Hello Tim

    My wife and I live close to Nicky and Pete and we shared a bottle of Seven Springs with them last night. Really enjoyed it!!

  13. Anyone living in the North East of England please come along to the Living North Fair at Newcastle racecourse this Friday thru Sunday. Proteas Wines have a stand there and are doing a special promotion on this excellent new Sauvignon Blanc from Seven Springs. Join us for a taste and see if you agree with all that’s been written about it.

  14. I love love love this wine! Purchased a case from Underwoods as soon as I could, although I’m sad to say it didn’t last long. Tim and Vaughan’s infectious enthusiasm has been transferred into this wonderful wine, and Riana has done a tremendous job for them in creating such a stunning first vintage. This review from Jamie, along with all of the others are testament to that.

    Can’t wait to taste the Chardonnay, and I hope to see you at LIWF again this month Tim and Vaughan!

  15. 90/100?
    Nice one Tim!

    Great to meet you and will be sampling the Sauvignon this week; very much anticipated!

    Good luck with the others and if you have a spare bottle next time you are in Italy….you know where I live!

    Salute!

    David

  16. had quite a few lucky showings of this wine, tasted in London and then in Staffolo, in a country picnic with Tim and Vaughan at the Adriatic coast. reviewed it then, and then recently over Christmas Riana the winemaker and I chewed the fat in my house in cape town while enjoying this lovely SB. its a great start with finese and lots of class. white peach, lovely mouth feel and good acid. The 2011 vintage I enjoyed in cape town was lovely. I also tasted Rianas just bottled Chardonnay oaked and unoaked, and those two show well. Their new reds came out one evening in January over a roast chicken we had one night on the patio. new pinot noir and a Syrah from 7S. recent interview on my site above
    To the seven springs team.. I look forward to lots more “moments” and keep surprising us with your terroir wines. Loving them. Donna

  17. Great to see Tim getting praise already withe SB. I have a tasting on the 30th which will detail all the wines produced and available in the UK. Can’t wait to see the smiles on peoples faces???

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