WINEMAKER Jessica Saurwein has released her first Nebbiolo. Boom Nebbiolo 2025 comes 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 1100 bottles, and Tim Atkin MW and Christian Eedes have each awarded it 93 points.
The idea took root on a trip to Piedmont in 2016. Years later, Jessica learned that her viticulturist, Shane Mullis, had Nebbiolo planted a stone’s throw from the vineyard behind her Om Pinot noir. “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,” she says. “This wine says: Boom, drink me now!”
Boom releases alongside the Nom Pinot Noir 2025 from Elandskloof, a lighter vintage of juicy red fruit, rose and orange rind, and the floral, off-dry Chi Riesling 2026. The 2024 Chi was named Best Riesling in South Africa at the 2025 Platter’s Wine Guide awards. Saurwein’s debut 2015 Nom scored 92 points from Neal Martin, ahead of DRC La Tâche 2000, and the second vintage featured in Decanter’s “50 Most Exciting Wines of the World” (January 2019).
Every label is painted by artist Isabella Kuijers from the flora around each site, hinting at the wine’s aromatics. Boom carries the Waboom (Protea nitida), an indigenous tree that withstands veldfire; a specimen more than a century old stands above the family’s new vineyard in Stanford. There, Jessica farms her own Pinot Noir regeneratively, with home-made worm tea and biochar.
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