History

Seven Oaks is a working wine farm, and we growing both white and red wine grapes on 55 hectares of vineyards. The background to how we came about is a fascinating story of local and new history.

Oom Fanie Le Roux, 86 years old at the time, told us that there used to be only four farms in the area between the Breede and Wagenbooms rivers. One of these was Witteelse Boom, 1434 Morgan, and had only grazing rights from the Dutch East India Company. Our origins date back to 1813 when Sir John Cradock announced that farms could be subdivided. Many subdivisions of Witelsboom, as the farm became known, then took place.

Our farm belonged to Oom Fanie’s father, Stephanus Christoffel Le Roux, in 1887. Oom Fanie later inherited the farm. It was known as Amore (meaning Love) by the Italian prisoners of war who worked on the land during World War II. Oom Fanie remembers there being five oak trees behind the farmhouse. One of the trees was cut down in 1947, a vast tree with a 6 feet diameter trunk and close to 100 years old (at least 92 tree rings could be counted).

Patrick bought the farm at an auction in 2003. Jacqui was not in approval of Patrick going to yet another auction, nor was she again present. Having tasted half of the wine in the valley the night before, Patrick had to break his good news to an unimpressed Jacqui, who enquired what exactly there is on the farm. He told her, “There are seven oak trees in the drive, my darling”.  An excellent name for a wine farm, she thought and said,” I’ll forgive you for now if I can name the Farm Seven Oaks”. When Jacqui arrived for the first time two months later, she counted only six oaks! Patrick had to make a plan, and a seventh oak was hastily planted. Look when you arrive, and you will see the smaller seventh oak in the drive and close to their main entrance.

Hence the Seven Oaks Logo has six large and one little oak tree to depict and commemorate the name and the story.

The Pols Family

Patrick was born and bred in Cape Town and came from very humbling beginnings but was fortunate enough to matriculate from Westerford High School in 1981. After school, he went to the SA Navy, where he spent six years as a Combat Officer in Mine Counter Measures flotilla.

In 1988 he migrated north to Gauteng to seek his fortune, and it is here that he met Jacqui who was originally from Port Elizabeth. Even though they continued with their own lives, in 1993, they realized that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. They married in 1994, up in The Hogsback, with one condition being that if they had children, they would be educated in the Western Cape. Their daughter, Andie, was born in 1998, and in 2001, Matthew completed the family. With the incidental purchase of Seven Oaks in 2003, the move to the Western Cape became a reality in 2005. The move to Seven Oaks was a stopgap arrangement as it was not Jacqui’s first choice as she felt that the family should live closer to the kid’s school in Franschhoek. As history seems to repeat itself, the temporary arrangement became permanent after Jacqui fell in love with the setting and lifestyle. The long slow journey of developing the farm commenced to what it is today. Jacqui claims that this was the third and final time they would move to a house that needs a total makeover, much to Patrick’s laughter.

The family are adventurers at heart and have travelled the world.  Over the years, they have all seen the seven continents, and the stories and experiences are legendary. Some of the more interesting destinations they have been to as a family was Cuba in 2007, Iran in 2013 and North Korea in 2018.

Keep an eye on our blog for more travel stories!

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Social Responsibility

aaAt Seven Oaks, we believe in doing business responsibly and in positively impacting our clients, employees, the local community, and the environment through all of our actions. Yearly we participate in an education initiative, as well as supporting local businesses throughout the year.

Seven Oaks has supported Rally to Read since 2004. Rally to Read’s primary focus is to promote literacy at a grassroots level in remote rural schools across South Africa. For more than two decades, Rally to Read, in partnership with the Department of Education, has worked tirelessly alongside corporate and private sponsors to deliver books, teaching aids, Grade R educational equipment and toys, as well as other much-needed resources to these schools.

During COVID-19, we at Seven Oaks managed to keep employing all of our staff at full salary, and this was done as a priority to the farm through highly challenging times.

We pay all schooling requirements for the children of our staff, and this includes school fees, uniforms and stationery.

We also sent an employee of ours with very bad eyesight to an optician twice in the last three years and purchased the recommended glasses for him on each occasion.

Since our move to Seven Oaks, we have and continue to support several local fundraising initiatives – ranging from schools to the elderly and sports initiatives.  These include Goudini School Rawsonville, Akker Rakkers Nursery School, Wolseley Ouer te Huis, Wolseley Primary School, Boland Pageants and Rotary Wine Auction in East London to name a few.

Seven Oaks contributes to various animal welfare societies monthly, including Chain Boland, KAPS (Karoo Animal Protection), Sushi & Panda, Dassenberg Horse Rescue, Cart Horse Protection Society, The Dogbox Project, African Pangolin Group and The Winter Blanket Drive.

Lastly, R10 from every bottle of Per L’Amore di Andie MCC that we sell is donated to research related to Epilepsy.