Tribute to first lady of wine
24 July 2009
by Len Maseko in THE SOWETAN newspaper
THE struggle by women to assert themselves as individuals responsible for their own development, unencumbered by chauvinism, is a tension that preoccupies their daily existence.
With the weight of historical prejudice always bearing down like a millstone around their necks, women have unfairly had lives defined by patriarchal sensibilities and their manifestation – the epic battle of the sexes.
Despairing over chauvinism, author Sarah Moore Grimké (quotegarden.com) once said: “I ask no favours for sex ... All I ask of our brethren is that they take off their feet from our necks.”
Not for many women, though, is life today about subjecting themselves to social subjugation or, worse, living the stereotype of being perennial kitchen hands solely slaving to please the master. Where they have been able to break through the shackles of stereotyping, they have inevitably generated lingering doubts about their capacity to succeed without a leg-up.
With constant allusions to man’s hidden hand spurring them to an elevated status, women have shrugged the prejudice and forged on regardless.
They have come into their own reckoning without so much an aim to beat men in their own game as to forge their own destiny.
Strong-willed Norma Ratcliffe, owner and wine maker at Warwick Wine Estate in the Cape wine lands, is such an individual.
Acclaimed as a pioneering woman who successfully burst into the wine sector, Ratcliffe has 25 years and a string of award-winning wines behind her to prove her credentials.
She remains distinguished as the first woman to be inducted into the Cape Winemakers Guild in 1989.
Recently, she celebrated her 25th anniversary of wine making at Joburg’s 10 Bompas Hotel, with a nostalgic line-up dating back to her first wine, the 1984 Femme Bleu.
From debut wine, the memory lane extended to the exquisite 1986 Triology, 1995 Cabernet Franc, 1997 Three Cape Ladies, 1998 Chardonnay to the boutique 2001 Femme Bleu. All the wines were a tribute to determined efforts of both Norma and her late husband Stan, and their two children – Mike and Jenny.
Today the family’s wines are a regular feature at top restaurants in SA, America, Asia and Europe.
Trilogy remains their popular wine, with the First Lady launched by her son as a tribute to mom in 2008. An apt monument to the feisty “First Lady of Simonsberg”. Norma’s dogged efforts have succeeded to overcome the dogma of patriarchy in the wine world. Her barnstorming attitude suitably resonates with Madonna’s famous quote: “I’m tough, I’m ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.”

The best Japanese chef in the world visits Cape Town.

Nobu Matsuhisa, the eponymous chef that founded the internationally renowned NOBU group of Japanese restaurants visited Cape Town recently. Here he is pictured during a meal at Belthazar restaurant in the Waterfront with owners Ian Halfon and Jonothan Steyn.
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WARWICK TRILOGY AWARDED FIVE STARS

BY WINE MAGAZINE

Trilogy becomes only the 31st Five Star wine since WINE magazine was

founded in 1993. Trilogy is also currently the only South African wine

in the Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines in the World.

Jonothan Cherry and myself presenting at the SECOND BASE wine marketing conference

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WARWICK & VILAFONTE WINTER EXPERIENCE AT BLUES

Join Mike Ratcliffe and the Warwick and Vilafonte winemaking teams for a personal & social experience as we explore the combination of good classic winter food with some hand-picked gems from our cellar. Great value & great fun. Space is limited for this double-header – so book early.

Date: 10 July 2009
Venue: Blues Restaurant, Camps Bay
Time: 19h30 for 20h00
RSVP: colleen@warwickwine.com
Cost: R195 pp incl. a glass of wine with each course
Dress: Casual

Message from Margaux: blu(e) ladies by Neil Pendock

“The only thing wrong with this wine” laughed Warwick MD Mike Ratcliffe “is we misspelled the name.” But then I can never remember whether its Ratcliff or Ratcliffe. The wine in question was La Femme Bleu, a 1984 vintage 100% Cabernet made by mom Norma whose 25 years making wine at Warwick we were celebrating last Thursday at The Vineyard Hotel in Clairemont. The Vineyard is some way down the road to becoming the wine destination of choice for urban Cape Town. In fact so keen is GM Roy Davies, he expressed an earnest desire to host the Mother City launch of our People’s Guide, out in September. With Lady Anne Barnard’s 18th century vineyard at the bottom of the garden, this is an offer that is hard to refuse.

As an aside, I was surprised to note that LAB was a pioneer of interior design. An Aesthete Laments: “Lady Anne Barnard … and her sister [Lady Margaret Fordyce, later Lady Lamb] broke all the rules when they actually started their own ‘business’ [out of their shared Adam-style house at 21 Berkeley Square, London]. Short of money and with a natural talent for interior decoration, they took to buying or renting houses, doing them up, and letting them furnished for a considerable profit. One or two people had the bravery to see that this was an excellent idea, but others took the view of the lady who complained that ’she wished to God those two very agreeable women would leave off being upholsterers and begin to be women of fashion [again].’”

Norma has always been in the vanguard of wine fashion and the spelling mistake, like printing errors on stamps, makes her wine and its label all the more collectable. Of course if they’d called it La Femme en Bleu, the bleu wouldn’t have needed a trailing “e” as Picasso noted when he painted La Femme en Bleu au Beret a century ago. His great rival Matisse did a Femme Bleue although there’s much more than an “e” difference between the two paintings.

Norma’s first vintage was actually a decade earlier. “In 1974 we copied Rustenberg and made a Cinsault/Cabernet blend. The wine was stunning but we decided to go the Bordeaux route and the 1984 Femme Bleu was aged in 100% new French oak at the exorbitant price of R184 a barrel.” When I asked my neighbour Adi Badenhorst, former winemaker at Rustenberg, what I should re-plant on Lemoenfontein, (my Paardeberg conflict of interest - not!), quick as a flash he answered “Cinsault” - but then the Paardeberg is no Simonsberg. Heck I’ve even been asked to again judge the potjie cook-off between the two bergs alongside my personal hero Annatjie Melck in July.

Colour coded ladies came to mind this morning sitting under a tree in Margaux reading Maiden Voyage (Reader’s Union, 1945) by Denton Welch. Recalling the Shanghai nightclubs of his youth a century ago, he remembered “a middle-aged woman dressed all in green. On the table in front of her stood a glass of crème de menthe and she held a green cigarette between her lips.” He commented on her to his beefy dancing partner, who replied “Isn’t she killing! I’ve seen her here in red velvet, sipping cherry brandy and smoking a rose-coloured cigarette. Tonight she’s all in green. She always has everything to match.” “What does she drink when she wants to go blue?” “I don’t know, unless it’s methylated spirits!”

Cathy Moerdijk, Janna Rijpma & Norma Ratcliffe at the VINITES tasting in Amsterdam!!

Wide-angle view of the Warwick tasting room

From: Stephan Theron
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 2:03 PM
To: Warwick Wine Estate
Subject: Dankie

 

Dankie vir die wynproe gister.

Hier is 'n wye hoek foto wat ek gister geneem het.
Stephan Theron van Vishoek.

Ivan Daniels proudly displays our new Warwick 'The First Lady' t-shirt

Swinging with Norma and Warwick

Published by emile@winegoggle.co.za under Reviews and Views

Norma Ratcliffe - Grand Dame

Ever since Mike Ratcliffe talked me into buying a membership of the Warwick Wine Club two years ago, I seem to have a lot of this farm’s stuff lying around. I’m not going to stake a claim to being a Warwick boffin, but I can spot the Estate’s wine in most line-ups, just as I can tell my dog’s bark from 320 others running around De Waal Park.
Of course, being somewhat intrigued by the wines from Simonsberg, Stellenbosch’s Pauillac, delving into my Warwich stash is always going to be more than just opening another bottle of something.
The Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot do not give as much heady fruit intensity as Kanonkop, Warwick’s one neighbour. Nor to these varieties portray the likeable leanness of Le Bonheur just up the road.
For me the Warwick reds show wine’s ability to bear a seductive power. Tannins are evened out, but the presence is weighty and potent, without any hint of after-burn or over-extraction. Of course, a reason for this is the dominance of Cabernet Franc in the Trilogy Bordeaux blend. Having perfected Cabernet Franc, the farm is able to bring out the best in this variety, namely grace and poise enveloped by an assertive juiciness. For Cabernet Franc can be greener than a Kommetjie whale-hugger.
I was thus not going to let the opportunity pass me by of attending a tasting to celebrate Warwick’s 25 years in the winemaking business, held last week in the Vineyard Hotel. I wanted to see where everything came from. The bash behind the stash.
Norma Ratcliffe, Mike’s mother who placed Warwick on the wine map – amongst other noticeable achievements – led the assembled group of hacks and friends through a tasty line-up.
But this was a tasting Norma style. No weighty diatribes on yields, smart cellar decisions or philosophical statements on wood maturation. Just Norma talking animatedly about some of the Warwick wines she likes and using a few nostalgic titbits to complement her vivaciousness, knowledge and personality. (Isn’t the thought of young Mike among a pile of pumpkins just adorable!)
Norma tells it all, her way. She is, after all, our Grand Dame.
Okay, so first up was a 1984 Warwick Femme Bleu (sic), the first commercial wine made by Norma on Warwick. A Cabernet Sauvignon, this 25 year old model was in perfect condition. The colour was garnet. The nose honey-comb. Lean fruit on the palate, a hint of cedar. No oxidation or stuffiness.
The 1986 Trilogy was similarly brilliant, although the addition of Merlot and Cabernet Franc to the Cabernet Sauvignon allowed for a tad more complexity and depth. Once again, it was crystal clear on the palate and the good acid ensured it was still as tight as an Eric Clapton guitar string.
A lot of the anti-Pinotage gang rip into anybody willing to state that a Pinot Noir character can become evident in Pinotage. Well, Norma put up a 1997 Warwick Three Cape Ladies (Pinotage blend) which almost knocked one over with the whiff or pure Burgundian forest floor, wet haystack and Algerian vineyard worker arm-pit. This was more Pinot Noir here than in a lot of Pinot Noirs themselves.
Of course, the wine was huge in the mouth, making an assertive Pinot Noir entrance and ending with ripe cherries and hints of Fortis syrup.
Heading onto the 1995 Cabernet Franc and the 2001 Cape Winemakers Guild Femme Bleu (sic), it was enormously satisfying to begin recognizing the stylistic traits of my current, newer Warwick wines. Looking at my 2006 Trilogy and Cabernet Franc, it appears the wines are actually fuller and more voluptuous in their youth. After a couple of years, the fruit and tannins separate giving the wines a different structure all together, whilst maintaining pureness and depth.
Norma threw in a 1998 Chardonnay, and what a humdinger. It was big, it was nutty, it was limey, it was a Staffordshire terrier of Chardonnays, just waiting to rip the gonads out of anyone wearing an “Anything But Chardonnay” T-shirt. Some, like wine-trader Mark Norrish, were so inspired they shouted: “This is Burgundy, Norma!”
The evening ended with dinner, and I enjoyed more of the Chardonnay – albeit a younger model that, unlike the 1998, hadn’t been stirred with Norma’s golf club – and Warwick’s wonderfully supple Pinotage.
This was definitely the wine event of the past year for me, for you can haul out the best wines in the house, but the event don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
Keep swinging, Norma, because you’ve got it.

E Louw Joubert

 

Warwick Wine Club lucky draw June 12

Warwick scores highly in DECANTER Magazine - in Hungary!

WARWICK STAFF FUNCTION 27 MAY 2009

Drinking from the wedding cup

Dear Mike,

I promised you a photo that was taken at Warwick on 30 April.   The lovely young couple Andrew Hunt and Rachel Read are from Oxford and both involved in a tour operator called Audley who sends many English wine fans out to the Winelands. They are getting married in September and came out to the Cape to source the wine that they want to present at the wedding to some 100 guests. Isn't that nice?  Hopefully they will eventually decide on Warwick ‘The First Lady’ which is my favourite.

Regards 

Pietman Retief

 

 

Cherryflava conference: Brand Hooligans - Creating a brand experience that makes people nuts about you [video link] On Thursday 28 May 2009 Cherryflava will host an experiential marketing conference in Cape Town called BRAND HOOLIGANS - Creating a brand experience that makes people crazy about you. The event will showcase the city's most creative and successful marketing practitioners in a unique marketing conference format designed to generate maximum insight into their successful strategies and future opportunities as they see it. It's a must-attend event for marketers, creative professionals, entrepreneurs and strategists keen to gain insight into how a carefully crafted experience can be the most efficient and effective marketing tool a brand can employ. Tickets to the conference are very limited. Only 30 are available for purchase. The speaker line up includes: Rui Esteves & Brad Armitage [founders vida e caffe and and now Brewers & Union] - Building a world-class South African brand: The devil's in the detail Jody Aufrichtig [co-creator of the Old Biscuit Mill and The Grand Daddy and one of South Africa's most prolific and successful business innovators] - Re-imaging the way things are done Porky Hefer [celebrated creative director and founder of Animal Farm - an award-winning creative consultancy that is quickly redesigning the world] - Innovation inspiration from the world around you Mike Ratcliffe [Platter's guide 2009 5-star award-winner and partner/owner of Stellenbosch-based Warwick Wines and Vilefonte] - Experience is the only real marketing tool we've got left Gareth Cotton [the 24-year old entrepreneur and creator of Chariot Limousines] - 10 recession busting marketing ideas in 3 blocks Jonathan Cherry [editor of Cherryflava] - How to market like Marilyn Manson When: Thursday 28 May 2009 Where: Boo Radley's, Cape Town CBD Time: 1:00pm - 6:30pm Price: R950 per ticket. To book your seat: E-mail Jon Cherry - jon@cherryflava.com Bookings close: 20 May 2009 [no tickets to be sold after this date] [video link]

VERY COOL - Mike Ratcliffe tours China on a wine marketing trip

Our new product - Warwick Bottle Stopper

To Russia with Love

Mike Ratcliffe visited Russia on a wine marketing trip recently. Here he blogs irreverently about the experience.Entering the Russian wine market is not for the fainthearted. The beaurocratic mess that is the Russian import regime makes South Africa's wine regulatory red-tape feel like a walk in the park. Add to that the shambolic politically motivated import restrictions and the punitive (and irrationally inflexible) customs duties and taxes and you have already accumulated a number of reasons to avoid the Russian federation all together.And so it was that I found myself facing a barrage of questions from a local customs official after disembarking at Moscow's Demondenova airport. To put it into perspective, the landing card containing numerous illogical questions (like university qualification, interests and hobbies etc) and needs to be filled out in triplicate. Despite a wealth of travel experience, I made the mistake of filling out the wrong form (in triplicate) and it was eventually explained that I had inadvertently used the form for 'Belarus' citizens and not the 'foreigners' form. Let me be clear that nowhere on the form did it mention any distinction between foreigners and Belarus residents.After navigating the murky corridors of taxi diplomacy, I seemed to be making progress. Stepping out of the airport into the crisp cold afternoon air was like getting slapped in the face with a bag of ice. Cold was the word of the day and boy was that word an over-traded commodity. After an hour of driving through a crazy snow-storm, I arrived at the Danilovskaya Hotel which was something out of a 1970's James Bond movie. Built to withstand a nuclear blast with windows designed to keep radiation out, this was a budget hotel in name only and without any service at all. Even asking the concierge (who didn't really speak English) to book me a taxi was met with an unapologetic scrap of paper with a phone number on it and a few other words in cyrrilic script. Communication in the Russian federation is challenging and I was quite surprised by my inability to decipher even a single Russian letter on signage or understand a single word of the local lingo. I downloaded a translation application on my phone and even this did not help as the pronunciations are challenging, even for a Stellenbosch educated Afrikaans speaking souty. I finally found that the only way to compare the words on the map with the words on the street signs was to compare the shapes of the letters.Now that I have set the cultural scene, let me explain that Moscow has never been accused of being a pretty destination. It does however have isolated examples of breath-taking architecture and somehow familiar examples of extraordinary (or grotesque depending on your angle) edifices that hark back to the days of the cold-war. I spent a late evening clearing my head wandering through Red Square in the driving snow and it certainly felt a little like a dream landscape, but the reality of mass unemployment and beggars on the street corner soon dispelled all hints of romanticism. I should also note that despite extensive investigation, there was absolutely no evidence of the iron curtain.Hot tip: There are easier places to sell wine, but the Russian market, even now, is flush with cash and if you can navigate the complicated entry procedures, South African wines are considered seriously good value and can, and do, make an impact. The Russian market is also untainted by any kind of historical (read early nineties) baggage that over-zealous wine marketers might have foisted on the British. Wines from South Africa seem to be considered cool and in the many high-end wine retailers that I visited were often positioned in the pride of place and amongst the best wines of the world. I also visited a couple of every-day supermarkets and was happy to see wines from South Africa being displayed prominently, and at price-points that seemed to indicate a relative value against our antipodeans and South American compatriots. Yes - the 'V-word' translates globally and it is just as valid here in Moscow. As an aside, have we considered how many people around the world that are trading down in price point, are currently trading down to the South African price-point. A wise man once said that there is nothing quite like a recession to realign markets and bring supply and demand back to an equilibrium of common-sense. Perhaps it was the same wise man that noted that some of the worlds biggest success stories were founded by opportunists and entrepreneurs during a recession. The South African value proposition is going to hold us in good stead over the ensuing months as the world shakes it's excesses out of the system.Back to Russia; the wine culture does not scream at you and to truly uncover the potential of this market you really have to scratch around a little. I did. I discovered wine, vodka and cigar bars hidden below ground behind unmarked doors. I found wineshops that were so eager to learn that they were prepared to shut down the store for an hour long presentation. I met serious sommeliers that actually listened to what a winery owner from South Africa had to say - and took notes. It is a far cry from some of the more established blasé markets that have been overrun by winemakers on their annual overseas holiday (read: wine marketing trip/employment perk) who are judged on their ability to limit their expense account rather than on tangible results.Some (secret agents and wine marketers) would suggest that departing Moscow brings a certain bitter-sweet level of relief and an inner calm - I would not disagree with this completely. Despite all of the mixed opinion above, Moscow has not scared me off - the market is exciting, edgy and pulsating with potential. A little adrenaline never failed to galvanise my resolve and I will be back.