A family-run Robertson Valley estate led by siblings Abrie and Jeanette Bruwer.
The producer
Springfield works from a cellar dating to 1902, favoring vineyard intervention and minimal manipulation. Each vineyard is matched to its intended grape and wine style, and most wines ferment with natural wild yeast. Bottling is unfiltered wherever possible. Wild Yeast Chardonnay Springfield Estate 2024 is unwooded and spends ten months on its lees. Life from Stone 2024 is dry and medium-bodied, with present acidity, a generous mouthfeel and no wood.
Known for
Site-matched vineyards and wild yeast
Notable facts
The owners are ninth-generation descendants of French Huguenots who came from the Loire to South Africa in 1688.
The red-wine cellar uses no pumps, crushers or presses; grapes move by gravity and ferment whole.
Some estate soils contain about 70% quartz rock.
Vines are planted east to west.
From the atlas
Springfield Estate
A family-run Robertson Valley estate led by Abrie and Jeanette Bruwer, matching vineyard sites to varieties and favoring wild yeast and minimal cellar manipulation.
At A Glance
Region
Robertson Valley, Western Cape, South Africa
Run by
Abrie and Jeanette Bruwer
Family farm since
1898
Cellar
Dates to 1902
Listed wines
Wild Yeast Chardonnay Springfield Estate 2024; Springfield Estate Life from Stone Sauvignon Blanc 2024
The Producer
Springfield Estate has belonged to the Bruwer family since 1898. Its owners are ninth-generation descendants of French Huguenots who came from the Loire to South Africa in 1688, carrying bundles of vines. Siblings Abrie and Jeanette Bruwer now run the estate.
Springfield aims to produce wine as naturally as possible, favoring intervention in the vineyard over intervention in the cellar. Each vineyard is matched to the intended grape variety and wine style. Vines are planted east to west for more even ripening, protection from the sun and the effect of the south-easterly breeze.
The cellar dates to 1902 and is organized around minimal manipulation. Most Springfield wine ferments with natural wild yeast, a process that can take months and cannot be guided or controlled. Wines are bottled unfiltered wherever possible.
Place
Some Springfield sites consist of about 70% quartz rock. Life from Stone grows in quartz-rich ground, and Springfield characterizes the wine as concentrated and powerful, with a flinty, mineral character linked to that site.
Wines
Wild Yeast Chardonnay Springfield Estate 2024 comes from Chardonnay vines aged 16 to 21 years, using clone CY5 grafted onto 101/14 rootstock. The unwooded wine ferments in underground cement tanks through a slow, volatile process that can take six to nine months. For the 2024 vintage, alcoholic fermentation with native yeast lasted 60 days. The wine completed natural malolactic fermentation and spent ten months on its lees. Springfield gives it a three-to-four-year drinking horizon.
Springfield Estate Life from Stone Sauvignon Blanc 2024 has aromas of asparagus, Granny Smith apple, lime, passion fruit and vegetable notes. It is dry and medium-bodied, with present acidity, a generous mouthfeel and no wood. It may be enjoyed immediately or over the following two to three years.