Back from overseas!

What a great trip. I went to Germany, England and Holland for the Cape Winemakers Guild to promote both the guilds wine, as well as that of Warwick. I had an absolute blast and the amount of positive feedback is really reassuring.

The German tasting was held in Hamburg at the Intercontinental hotel, and was one of the most stylish tastings I have been to. We did the tasting with the Guild wine in partnership with the Sauvignon blanc society and WOSA, and the synergy proved very positive.

About 100 people attended the tasting that was held on the same day as that of all the new German wines that where being, released, so we were very fortunate to have such a good attendance. The view over the city, combined with Cape tapas and good feedback from the tasters made the tasting really worth while.

Hamburg surprised as a city and with its people, to make this tasting extremely memorable.

London Hamburg Amsterdam

Next week I am starting my mini world tour for the Cape Winemakers Guild. I will be giving tastings in Germany, England and Holland. I will be traveling with another guild member, David Trafford, and we will show off the wines from the guild. I will have time in between to visit some clients and see what is happening in the bigger wine world.

Very exciting stuff. I have already started packing my bags. The country mouse is off to see the world.

Moving wine wine wine

The most common activity in the cellar is racking wine. This means we take the wine out of barrel, into a tank and back into the same barrel. This seems an exercise in futility at first, but it is a very important part of the process.

Through racking we get a chance to add air to the wine, inadvertently, and we also check the sulphur levels to protect the wine against oxidation and spoilage.

We have 800 barrels in total and we try to rack them three times a year. The job a very labour intensive, but the end result is worth it.

Topping barrels

During ageing some wine is lost because of evaporation. If the room is very humid the alcohol content of the wine will actually go down while if the room is very dry the alcohol content will go up slightly.

To prevent the staves in the barrels from drying out we therefore have to top barrels once a month. This is quite a big task if you have 800 barrels and we use quite a bit of wine in the process. This is also the main time when the wine gets some air contrary to most peoples belief that air comes in through the staves.

So our main aim today is to top and replace the bit of wine comonly referd to as the angels share.

Roll up, roll up!

The 2007 Professor Black is out. We finished labelling the wine last week so get your orders in. The Trilogy 2005 is also labelled so you can get some of that at the same time.

This week we are moving the last of the 2007 red wines to barrel and then we will start racking the red wines from the 2006 vintage.

Barrels barrels barrels. I will be counting barrels in my sleep.

Getting ready for labelling

We have started folding the boxes for the Professor Black 2007. We have stickers for Germany, the USA and the rest of the world. It takes quite a bit of planning to organise this effort.

Next week we will label the most urgent Professor black 2007 orders as well as the Trilogy 2005 orders. We will have a few days in the next to label the rest so I hope we finish everything.

Not long now.

Bottling bottling bottling

Yes folks, its that time of the year again. All those who have signed up for pre orders of the 2007 Professor Black Sauvignon blanc and the 2005 Trilogy will soon be rewarded. We are finally bottling the wine this week.

Bottling is a tricky operation and after spending months( and years with the Trilogy) this is the time that I must safely put the wine in the bottle. It can be very tricky so we are ultra careful.

After this week of heavy bottling we will finally label the wine at the end of the month so the wine should be ready in the first week of June.

Patience will definitely be rewarded.

Flying Wine Writer Jan Rook visits Warwick

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Chardonnay is next!

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Finally getting round to the Chardonnay and it was well worth the wait.

Nearly finished with the sauvignon blanc

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One more day to go and that is it. The weather girl predicts some rain for the weekend and we are heeding her warning and finishing off with the Sauvignon blanc.

 Thirsty work.

Sauvign Blanc being crushed

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Some of the first Suavignon Blanc grapes from the 2007 harvest being crushed - very exciting stuff!

Tags: wine, warwick, louis, nel, ratcliffe, stellenbosch, sauvignon, blanc

Anyone seen our barrels?

We lost a few barrels on the MSC Napoli, which has gone aground off the southern coast of England. If anybody sees one of our barrels please let us know because we need it for harvest.

Harvest has started

It is absolutely crazy here with the warm weather causing all the grapes to ripen at once.

We took in a ton of Chardonnay for sparkling wine on Tuesday and we are starting on the Pinotage today. Next week it will be sauvignon sauvignon sauvignon.

We are off with a bang and it can only be fun.

Fire in the Winelands

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On the 24th of january 2007, a ferocious fire swept through the vineyards of Stellenbosch in the cape. Through an amazing partnership between the vignerons and the South African air force, a major tragedy was averted. Pictures and video cannot convey the immense scale o=r the intense heat of the fire. No lives were lost!

Tags: wine, fire, stellenbosch, luxury, warwick, vilafonte, ratcliffe, south, africa, freese, zelma, series

Harvest is coming up

Slowly getting ready for harvest here. Me and Ronald had look at the vineyards and they are coming on fine. This year we had a lot less wind than last year and good rains in winter so there is no sign of water stress.

The evenings are cool which is great fro the Sauvignon blanc we will proably start harvesting first. This year we will be harvesting about 70 tons of Sauvignon blanc which will be our biggest harvest to date. Great news for all those clamouring for the Sauvignon blanc.

This year we will have two interns in the cellar. Ben Portet is from Australia and is joining us after a harvest in France. Together with Anne Bullen, who is doing her final year studying winemaking at Stellenbosch University, we will be six people in the cellar for harvest.

WARWICK TRILOGY: Top 100 Wines of 2006/Wine Enthusiast Magazine

Congratulations Team Warwick!

Mike

 

	Wine Enthusiast SELECTS Top 100 Wines of the Year     December 7, 2006— Elmsford, New York – Wine Enthusiast Magazine, one of the world’s most respected and quoted publications in the field of wine and spirits, has named De Loach’s 2004 30th Anniversary Pinot Noir from California’s Russian River region “Wine of the Year” in its December 31st “Best of Year” issue, available this week.  The Best of Year issue celebrates the Wine Enthusiast’s Top 100 Wines of 2006 and also recognizes the year’s Top 100 Best Buys, with a Washington State Shiraz as the number one best-buy choice.    Carefully selected by the editors of Wine Enthusiast Magazine, the annual “Best of Year” selections are drawn from the nearly 10,000 wines tasted over the course of 2006 and represents the highest standards in quality, price, availability, newsworthiness, excitement and buzz! The list covers all five major categories of wine: sparkling wines, red and white table wines, fortified wines and dessert wines. Winners this year include wines from 13 different countries of origin. “More and more countries are making top-flight wines, and the 2006 list reflects the great improvements in winemaking that we’re seeing around the world,” said Wine Enthusiast Magazine Tasting Director and Senior Editor, Joe Czerwinski.    The Top 100 Wines of 2006 The Top 100 Wines of 2006 include 56 New World wines and 44 from Europe.  The New World was well represented in the Top Ten with South Africa’s Warwick Trilogy at number five, and Argentina’s Punto Final Malbec Reserva from Perdriel at number nine. The US boasted 38% of the Top 100 Wines, with three of the top ten produced in California.  Price and value are important criteria for even the best wines – Wine Enthusiast’s number three pick is the Charles Heidsieck Rserve Brut Champagne, at $36 a bottle. While the average price of a Top 100 wine was $53 a bottle, the median price was $36.    Since multiple factors were considered when selecting wines for this prestigious list, not all wines on the Top 100 list are necessarily the highest-scoring wines.  Of those featured, the wines that received the three highest scores from the Wine Enthusiast 100-point rating scale were all Cabernet blends from the 2002 vintage in California, including: Sloan Cabernet Blend, Rutherford, unique recipient of 100 points; Rubicon Estate Cabernet Blend and Harlan Estate, Cabernet Blend, Napa Valley, both 99 points.  The average score of Top 100 Wines is 94, while the average price of Top 100 Wines is $53, with the median price at $36.   The Top 100 Best Buys of 2006 Less than 1% of all wines tasted over the course of the year make it onto the Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s Best Buy list.  Wines designated as the Top 100 Best Buys of 2006 have wine-rating scores of 85 points or higher of the 100-point scale and generally have a suggested retail price of $15 or below.  The grand winner this year was Columbia Crest’s Grand Estate Shiraz from Columbia Valley, Washington, with a 90 point rating score for $11.  Second place went to Portugal's Dao Sul’s Quinta do Gradil, also with a 90 point score, available for $6.  Rounding out the top ten, the USA had five wines (2 from Washington State and 3 from California), while Portugal, Argentina, Australia, France and Spain each had one.   Of the top 100 Best Buys, 52 wines are from the New World while 48 are Old World, while the average price is $11.60.  As contrasted with the Top 100, which had no ross, there are four ross on the Best Buy list. In addition, 40+ wines scored 90 or above: 14 from US, 6 from France, 5 from Argentina, 4 from Spain, 5 from Australia, 3 from Portugal, 2 from Chile, 2 from Germany.     5 Warwick 2004 ‘TRILOGY’ Estate Reserve 95   South Africa, Stellenbosch / $32 Red This was the first Bordeaux blend from the Cape, and remains one of the very best. This 2004 is stylish, very Bordeaux in its structure, yet shows a richness of fruit that Bordeaux can only envy. Black currants, dry tannins and a sense of great ageability - they are all there. Page: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
103 Fairview Park Drive • Elmsford, NY 10523 914/345-8463 • Fax 914/592-0102 • www.wineenthusiast.com/mag

 

 

 

 

WARWICK ESTATE: Challenge International Du Vin

Dear ‘Team Warwick’,

More good news!

 

The results are in for the Challenge International Du Vin 2006.

The Challenge International du Vin is the biggest French international wine competition with over 30 countries entering and 5000 wineries entering.

 

South Africa received 5 medals, of those, Warwick took home 1 gold, 1 bronze and 1 silver – a total of 60% of South Africa’s results.

http://www.challengeduvin.fr/result_search.php

 

Well done everyone … another positive result!

I hope that this info is useful.

Mike

_______________________________________________________________

Mike Ratcliffe

* PO Box 2, Elsenburg, 7607, South Africa

( Phone:    +27 (0) 21 88 44410
4    Fax:       +27 (0) 21 88 44025

( Skype:    mikeatwarwick

ÿ mike@warwickwine.com

"   http://www.warwickwine.com

2004 Blends

I just finished doing the 2004 red wine blends and I am very happy. This not an one day exercise, but a task that stretches over weeks with decisions you have to sleep over.

Blending is a bit like alchemy because when you do the blends the results are often not what you expected. One plus one equals three in many cases so trial and error can be a very rewarding journey.

For the 2004 vintage we only have 100 cases of Cabernet Franc. This is because we had a very small crop in 2004 and most of this gorgeous wine has to go to the Trilogy. Cabernet Franc is a wonderful component to have and we are very fortunate to have ane of the best vineyards in the country on our farm. The block is known as The Far Side because of its location. The block is very consistent in quality and gives us an edge when blending.

The 2004 Trilogy is one of the best to date and I think it will sell out even quicker than the previous vintage.

The Three Cape Ladies is also a step up and proof that all our efforts in the vineyard are finally paying off. This year their long lost cousin Shiraz joins the Three Cape Ladies. Our once off Shiraz that became a cult wine in the US has finally found a home in this blend and helps the other ladies to hold the flag.

Wine across America Blog – Los Angeles

Today’s PODCAST from CALIFORNIA.

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Distribution in America is the key to success. Like anywhere in the
world, ‘route to market’ is always going to be the killer attribute that can
mean the difference between success and failure. Nowhere in the world is
this more apparent than in the United States where the neo-prohibitionist
hangover of federal liquor controls hangs thick in the air. Americans, it
seems, have reached an uneasy state of acceptance of this extraordinary
status quo where every facet of a wines journey to the end consumer pads
somebody’s pocket. To recapr for those who are confised by these statements.
America (generally) has a 3 tiered system of wine distribution whereby the
non-American producer cannot legally sell wine to anyone but a wine
importer. The absurdity starts when you understand that no single person or
business entity may own both a distribution and import license. What this
means is that the importer cannot sell wine to the consumer or even the
retailer/restaurateur and can only sell wine toa distributor who in turn can
also only sell wine to the trade. Technically speaking, the only place a
consumer can gain access to imported wines is through the 3rd tier of the
channel which is the retailer or restaurateur. Once you understand the
vastness of the US market, it is understandable that perhaps this system
would have evolved independently as few companies have the infrastructure
and capabilities to own and distribute nationally with efficiency. But the
system really falls down in the sense that it suppresses free market
activities and that the larger National distributors have little in the way
of competition. As a result of this and to further entrench this skewed
power balance, the larger distributors are being consolidated  at a rate
that is unprecedented and fewer distributors are controlling more of the
market. It feels sometimes that every medium-size distributor in the US is
simply waiting for the ‘big guys’ to come along and buy them out. Might I be
over-dramatising this? Maybe, but this is the feeling on the ground.
So what does this mean for South Africa? Well, for every distributor that
gets purchased, this means fewer distribution slots for South African wines
exist and fewer small producers are able to participate in what becomes a
much larger structure. The larger a distributor gets, the larger the
supplier has to become in order to become a meaningful contributor to bottom-
line. The big brands become bigger and the smaller brands get squeezed out.
The consolidation of distribution and ongoing production fragmentation
continues apace. The two trends are not compatible and we will have to win
over some serious buyers to grow South African wine in the US – usually at
the expense of another global supplier.
So where are the opportunities?
The federal and state regulators are slowly (very slowly) dismantling the
complex wine distribution laws, but a combineation of big business
(distributor) lobbying in Washington, a very religious and conservative
population and misplaced priorities is hampering this progress. A high-
profile battle between retail giant Costco and the state of Washington
recently threw up a couple of clues about the future when Costco won the
first step in the battle to allow it to ship directly from the producer. Of
course this judgement will go to appeal and will probably be held up for
years, but Costco is being aggressive and has set a valuable precedent which
any sensible judge cannot fail to respect.
Is this a good thing? Well, yes and no as it si being championed by the
mammoth retailers and you can be sure that they are not pursuing a
Samaritanian endeavour to make money for the supplier – no, they are chasing
margin for their bottom-line because they know that through direct imports
and direct shipments, that they can leverage their massive nation-wide
distribution network to exponentially multiply their sales and balloon
already embarrassing margins.
Opportunities exist for South African suppliers to find routes to market
that narrow the gap between importer, distributor and retailer. In some
states, it is (kind-of) legal for the husband to own an import license, the
wife to own a distribution license and the kids to own multiple retail
licenses. It happens – another symptom of an idiotic system. Many California
wineries drive a substantial volume of their sales through wine clubs and
direct shipments to customers. Of course there is a limited amount of states
that you can ship to directly, but this has been growing over the years. Is
there a business model here for South African wineries. Is there an
effective model for a South African winery to run a wine club for direct
sales to customers? The answer must be yes, but there has to be demand first
and brand South Africa must become more entrenched before this will work. So
the hard work lies ahead in this massive market opportunity that is the USA.

Wine across America – California Dreaming!

The late night arrival of Team South Africa on the East Coast with an additional 3 time-zone changes was a minor shock as the road-show rolls on. After 3 months of non-stop rain that has been seriously affecting budding and shoot-development in California, the skies finally opened on the day of the Wines of South Africa tasting downtown, a stones throw from the eponymous Embarcadero. By many accounts, this tasting has been the most successful of the tour to date. Restaurateurs, retailers and eager consumers arrived in droves and kept everyone busy with an intense interest in learning more about South African wine. It is once again clear how closely linked tourism and wine are in selling brand South Africa. A large majority of the consumers had either been to South Africa or knew of someone that was going and this provided the key draw card, in my opinion. Americans have an embarrassment of choice and this is what has made America the enormous consumer culture that it is – or was it the other way around? The consumer, on the one hand, can be a little jaded and confused by choice. But if the message and the choice is communicated clearly and unambiguously to the consumer, they show an incredible willingness to open themselves up to trying something new. I have said this before – but feel that it is important to restate. Americans want us to teach them about our products and they want to buy them. We just need to start working on a clear message because at the moment our little wine industry does not have the financial or logistical clout to really get the message across. Sydney Harbour Bridge sells more Australian wine than you can imagine. ‘Finding Nemo’ and many other cultural icons has driven a whole generation to find Aussie interesting and exciting. We got close with Lion King – but it was really not there, was it?
On the subject of repeating myself, If I hear another consumer complaining that the wines on the WOSA show are not available in the USA, I will scream. It is always going to be difficult to give ‘new entrants’ an opportunity to show their wines, but perhaps we are putting the cart before the horse on this one. Perhaps these producers have had an opportunity to learn a huge amount about the US market and get a feeling for how to go about positioning themselves to enter the market, but it seems like an illogical and costly entry and market research solution. The tasting this afternoon in Costa Mesa, South of LA is being hosted by a prominent retailer called Hi-Time liquors. Once again the problem is going to raise its head as the consumers can only purchase the wines that the retailer stocks, and at best wines that have Californian distribution – it’s a tough school.
Wow! The Costa Mesa Orange County tasting was a hit – the consumers came out in droves and we were run off of our feet. This tasting must have rated as one the most intense and focused consumer wine tastings that I have ever been privileged to participate in. Wines poured, winemakers sweated, consumers listened and the wines of South Africa touched the perfect Southern California market. It was a monumental tasting and even impressed the organizers. I arrived a little more than 10 minutes before the tasting started ( a little late) and had to fight through about 100 people queuing at the door to get in. Big thank must go to Hi-Time Cellars for their excellent organization and boundless energy – the show was great!

I would like to pay tribute to the WOSA team for the effort and organization in putting this tour together – it has been an eye-opener for many producers and will be a catalyst for South Africa in this market. It is also a catalyst for greater cooperation in building South African wines in the US by building brand South Africa. One of the great minds behind doing just that is Yvonne Johnston at the SA International Marketing Council. It has been said that a bottle of wine in every wine shop and on every wine list in America will act as a positive reinforcer for Brand South Africa’s generic image. The wine industry has a lot to offer our marketing drive and we should not play second-fiddle. Tourism and many other SA industries engaged in marketing all have an excellent opportunity to harness synergies by partnering with WOSA – wine is exploding in America and we are in the right place at the right time – but there will not be more than one chance to get it right.