Saurwein founder and winemaker Jessica Saurwein has released her first Nebbiolo. Boom Nebbiolo 2025 is made from vines planted in 2005 on the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge, at 300 metres the highest-lying ward in Walker Bay. The maiden vintage ran to 1,100 bottles, and Tim Atkin MW and Christian Eedes (Winemag.co.za) have awarded it 93 points.
Boom releases alongside the Nom Pinot noir 2025 and the Chi Riesling 2026, marking Jessica's 11th vintage. Until now Saurwein has worked only with Pinot noir and Riesling, and built a reputation for both: the 2024 Chi Riesling was named Best Riesling in South Africa at the 2025 Platter's Wine Guide awards, where it also received five stars.
The Nebbiolo began with a trip to Piedmont in 2016, where Jessica and her husband, Roland Peens, fell for the variety. Years later she learned that her long-standing viticulturist, Shane Mullis, who farms the vineyard behind her Om Pinot noir, had a planting of Nebbiolo a stone's throw away.
“It looked so good, and as we love Nebbiolo, we could not overlook it any longer. I had to give it a try,” says Jessica. “The Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge is ideal for the long cool ripening that this noble variety requires to express this gorgeous floral and fruity perfume and wonderful tannin and structure. This wine says: Boom, drink me now!”
The Ridge is known for serious, structured wines, with soils that move from Table Mountain sandstone to deep Bokkeveld shale. Nebbiolo, an ancient-italian noble variety and late-ripening grape behind Barolo and Barbaresco, shares Pinot noir’s perfume and transparency to site, with firmer structure. The first vintage is bright and aromatic: lifted red fruit, florals and fynbos on the nose, with fresh acidity and a structured, velvety palate. Volumes will increase with future vintages.
The 2026 Chi Riesling and 2025 Nom Pinot noir
A cool ripening season suited Riesling in 2026. When rain arrived in late February, Jessica spread the risk across three Elgin vineyards and sites in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. The wine holds to the Chi style: floral, fruity and off-dry.
The Nom Pinot noir 2025 comes from the Elandskloof Valley, where red Bokkeveld shale and clay meet fractions of quartz and sandstone. A lighter vintage, it shows vibrant colour, juicy red fruit, rose and orange rind aromatics and a long, spiced and textured finish.
Saurwein’s first Pinot noir, the 2015 Nom from the Kaaimansgat vineyard in Elandskloof, was rated by Neal Martin alongside leading Burgundy producers DRC La Tache 2000 and scored 92 points, higher than the Burgundian wine (see here). “The second vintage featured on the cover of Decanter Magazine as “50 Most Exciting Wines of the World”, January 2019. Jancis Robinson MW described the 2019 Chi Riesling as “possibly South Africa’s best Riesling”, and various vintages of the wine have since been rated more than 93 points by Christian Eedes, Tim Atkin MW, Greg Sherwood MW and Jamie Goode.
The labels
Every Saurwein label is painted by fine artist Isabella Kuijers, drawing on the flora around each site and hinting at the wine’s aromatics: apple and blossom for the Chi Riesling, rich berry tones for the Nom, fynbos and forest floor for the Om. The Boom label carries the Waboom (Protea nitida), an indigenous tree that withstands veldfire. A specimen more than a century old stands on the slope above Saurwein’s new vineyard in the Stanford Valley.
The family and the farm
Saurwein is a family operation. Jessica works alongside Roland Peens, CEO of Wine Business Advisors and a fine wine figure of more than two decades; her mother Charmaine, known as Nonna; their children and two staff. The family line runs back to 17th-century Austria, where Jessica’s ancestors made “sour wine” for the Emperor.
At the family farm in Stanford, Jessica has planted her own Pinot noir vineyard using organic and regenerative practices including home-made worm tea and biochar to improve soil health. Open days on the farm are hosted once monthly and allow visitors experience some of the farming principles, taste and buy direct. The next two dates are 24th October and 29th November and a booking platform is available on www.saurwein.co.za.
Boom Nebbiolo 2025, Nom Pinot noir 2025 and Chi Riesling 2026 are available from 1st October via www.saurwein.co.za and various boutique and online wine shops across South Africa, is available in 20 export markets and is distributed in South Africa by Ex-Animo. Local prices are around R 600 for each of her two Pinot noirs – Om Pinot noir 2024 (Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge) and Nom Pinot noir 2025 (Elandskloof), R425 for the Boom Nebbiolo 2025 (Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge) and Chi Riesling 2026 (Cape Coast).