The wines are being prepped for the online SMS & TWITTER wine tasting...

More than 30 people from the wider wine industry have assembled at the
Vilafonté winery to learn about 'Social Media' & how it can be applied in
the wine industry. The afternoon is building a solid base for the
culminating event - an online, Twitter, Facebook and SMS enabled wine
tasting which will reverberate all around the world. The tasting is being
facilitated by Fred Roed from www.worldwidecreative, Jonathan Cherry from
www.cherryflava.com and the incredible team from www.mobilitrix.co.za - the
indominitable pioneers of cell phone marketing in South Africa. If we
achieve nothing, we will at least have some fun doing something that - we
don't think - has ever been done in South Africa before. Follow on Twitter
@mikeratcliffe

PERSONAL FINANCE (Independent Newspapers), National 22 Aug 2009, By Bruce Cameron

---

I originally set out to write this column to mark National Women's Day two weeks ago. One reason I wrote this column was my intense irritation at a gold coin company that issued a media release saying it was minting another edition of its "Princess Di" coins to mark Women's Day. This was cheap exploitation of what should be a serious event, and was made worse by the fact that the coins are not a real investment. These "personality" coins are totally over-priced relative to their gold content. The other reason I wrote this column was to tell you about two impressive women whose paths I cross regularly because of my fascination with blends, both wine and investment. Many of the investments I have made have been blends and many of my favourite wines are blends. I simply do not have the depth of knowledge or the time to make decisions on how to blend assets correctly, let alone try to pick each security in each asset class. I am not prepared to take such risks with the bulk of my savings. Neither do I try to blend my own wines. Instead, I have tended to use balanced, or what the unit trust industry calls flexible, funds for most of my investments. I have relied on patience and saving over the long term to provide me with the results I want. This approach has served me well. I am not trying to argue that all blends, whether wine or investment, are good; some blends are excellent, some are drinkable and others cannot be used even as vinegar. One thing I have learned is that a good blend does not happen by chance or by trying to piggyback on the success of others. You have to know what you are doing. This brings me to Women's Day Two of the more remarkable blenders I have met are Anne Cabot-Alletzhauser, the chief investment officer of multi-manager Advantage (part of the FirstRand Group), and Norma Radcliffe of Warwick Wine Estate (on the R44 to SteUenbosch, off the Nl before Paarl). Both, in their way, are zealous about getting their blends right. Life with Camcron Bruce Cameron Anne has been at it for 29 years. Norma celebrated 25 years of winemaking this year. They entered their professions when these were male-dominated. To a lesser extent, this is still the case today. A while ago, I attended a briefing by Anne on her approach to multi-management. I was amazed at the extent to which she tests the ability of asset managers to add real value. Multi-management is simply another way of creating a balanced, or flexible, portfolio. But instead of a single asset management company blending the asset classes and selecting the underlying investments, the multi-manager decides on the asset mix required to achieve different results. The multi-manager then selects asset managers from different asset management companies to decide on the underlying investments. This approach is also known as best-of-breedr DIFFERENT TARGETS Another important element of blends is that they do not provide a one-size-fits-all solution. Good wine blenders have something in mind when they blend their wines. For example, Norma will tell you that her Trilogy blend goes best with veal, game and intensely flavoured stews, as well as bitter chocolate desserts. Likewise, most investment blends exist to achieve different targets, which may include reducing volatility risk (the propensity for an investment to swing widely in value) or earning a certain return - for example, three or four percent above inflation. Every time I have spoken to Anne or attended her briefings, I have learned something new - or rather, a lot new. I have also been to a number of wine tastings at Warwick, and was fortunate to be invited to a tasting to celebrate Norma's 25 years in the industry. Much of the focus at the tasting was Norma's taking us through her blends of the past quarter-century, starting with the 1984 Femme Bleu, through to the more well known Three Cape Ladies and the flagship Trilogy. Her son, Mike, recently bottled a special blend, First Lady, to recognise the contribution made by his mother. Norma can be compared to a single asset manager, as the grapes used for the various blends come from the Warwick vineyards. YEARS OF TESTING Apart from marking Women's Day (albeit a bit late) by mentioning these two remarkable people, there is a point I wish to make: getting it right consistently does not happen by chance. It means years of testing, both you and your product, ensuring that the basic ingredients are of the best quality and that the mix provides the right balance for what you want to achieve. It is for this reason that I am contemptuous of many so-called multi-managers, in particular most of the unit trust funds of funds (FoFs). The people who manage these funds simply do not have the time, dedication or expertise to manage them properly. Allow me to diverge. My brother-in-law owns the Occidental Bar at the Kimberley mine museum. Recently, someone attempted to sell him something called Pearly Bay. It was so dreadful that he added vinegar to some of it and gave the result to one or two of his customers as an experiment. They found the vinegar blend the better option. I tasted Pearly Bay without the vinegar and I can say it is quite the worst wine I have ever tasted. As you can have a Trilogy or a Pearly Bay, so you can have an Advantage portfolio or one of those dreadful bottom-of-every-thing, broker white-label fund of funds, where a financial adviser, in most cases without the necessary time or expertise, is doing the blending. i VINTAGE VERSUS PLONK Let me give you an example. Without first looking at the performance tables, I decided to select a unit trust sub-category that was important for long-term savings (namely, retirement), where the investment portfolios are a blend of asset classes and where investors are protected to some extent from high-risk bets by the prudential investment requirements of the Pension Funds Act. I chose the domestic asset allocation prudential medium equity funds over three years to the end of June 30, 2009. I found both vintage performance and vinegar. The best performer was the Prescient SA Balanced Quant-Plus Fund, with an average annual return of 11 percent - not bad in the current market. The vinegar was supplied by the Quantum Balanced FoF, with an average annual return of minus 1.32 percent. Incidentally, in second place, and the best-performing fund of funds, was the Umbono Core Managed FoF, with an average annual return of 9.51 percent. (Not bad under current market conditions.) This fund, which is in the Old Mutual stable, uses tracker, or passive, portfolios as its building blocks. So, in simple terms, the different asset classes provide the average performance of the market. The skill lies in blending the asset classes. I then took a closer look at the Quantum Balanced FoF. When I looked at the fund's fact sheet, I found that 36 percent of the fund is in two other funds Quantum manages: Quantum Core Income and Quantum Global Managed. And blow me down, I found that both these funds are also multi- managed funds. And the Global Fund is managed by RMB Asset Management, three of whose funds make up more than 20 percent of the portfolio. On its website", Quantum Investment Partners refers to itself as "master blenders". I would suggest they take a few lessons from a real investment master blender - Anne - or else the people who are placing their money in Quantum's hands will be resorting to Norma's blends. Finally, a note of warning: be very careful when an adviser suggests that you place your money in a white-label fund that operates under the licence of another unit trust management company, in particular if it is a fund of funds. (Quantum is not one of these and does have qualified people making its investment decisions.) Many white-label funds charge excessive fees and are operated by financial advisers who do not have the necessary expertise or time to do so properly.

* Cameron is the author of Retire Right (Zebra Press), which is now in its second edition.

Do Wine Blogs Impact Your Brand?

New Study Highlights Wine Blogger Activity

by By Liz Thach, Ph.D., SSU Wine Business Professor

Should wineries pay attention to what wine bloggers are writing? Do they really have an impact on a wine brand? According to a new study just completed by Sonoma State University Wine Business Institute, it appears that the answer is yes -- especially for wineries with less well-known brands or located in new and upcoming wine regions.

How Many Wine Blogs Are There Anyway?

In order to conduct the study, it was necessary to obtain a random sample, so we consulted the Complete List of Wine Blogs, compiled by Alder Yarrow at www.vinography.com. You may be amazed to know that in the last 5 years, the number of wine blogs has grown from 1 to over 700. Of these, more than 570 wine blogs are in English, with an additional 170+ wine blogs in other languages, including Italian, French, Catalan, Czech, German, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Hungarian, Norwegian, and Indonesian.

Focusing on the English language wine blogs, we applied a decision rule of selecting a minimum of 10 blogs per alpha letter, and discarding those blogs that were not active. This resulted in a total sample of 222 blogs which were subjected to content analysis by 42 trained wine business students.

The 9 Major Categories of Wine Blogs

The first analysis included a thematic sorting of the blogs by major topic. This resulted in 9 categories as illustrated in the chart below. The most common type of blog is a Wine Review for which an individual blogger tastes and writes a review of the wine -- usually adding a rating from the standard 100, 20, or 5 point wine rating scales.

Blogs on Wine & Food with matching recipes, as well as information on restaurants was the 2nd largest category. This was followed by Wine Education where the blogger educates the reader on wine issues such as wine styles, varietals, how to taste wine and related topics. Blogs that focused specifically on Winemaking and Viticulture were placed in a separate category.

In addition, there were blogs that focused on Specific Wine Regions, such as a city, state, appellation or country. Some examples we found included Washington D.C., New Orleans, San Francisco, Paris, Seattle, Washington State, Oregon, California, and Britain. These blogs also emphasized wine shops and/or wineries available in these areas, as well as restaurants. A related category was Wine & Culture which focused on the association of wine with art, poetry, music, and literature.

Only 9% of the sample included Winery Blogs -- or those created by wineries to describe their wines and news at the winery. This illustrates an opportunity for more wineries to create their own blog. Other less frequent blog categories included Wine Business and Winemaking & Viticulture. The category of Other was created for those very unique blogs that didn't fit into major themes. Examples included "wine & hiking; wine & politics; wine under $20; and an emphasis on a specific grape, such as shiraz.

Numbers of Wine Brands and Ads on Blogs



 

Other analyses included counting and recording the number of wine brands and advertisements on the first page of each blog (we did not analyze older posts). Amazingly within the 222 wine blogs, 813 different wine brands were listed. These were sorted to determine which wine brands were cited most often. Interestingly only 3 brands were listed 4 or more times: Kendall-Jackson, Ridge and Penfolds. This analysis showed that many small unknown wine brands are described on blogs, as well as international brands from around the world.

Just under half of the sample (47%) included advertisements on the blog, for a total of 451 ads. These varied from simple ads provided by Google, to sophisticated winery, food, and wine product ads. It is important to note that the major way wine bloggers create revenue is through online ads, with professional bloggers able to make $20,000 - $30,000 per year in this fashion. Most wine bloggers have other jobs to supplement their online income. (Note: There have been some ethical discussions at the past two Wine Blogger's Conferences as to whether or not bloggers should accept ads from wine brands they review.)

Why Should Wineries Pay Attention to Bloggers?

There are several reasons that wineries need to pay attention to wine bloggers. The first is that the number of wine blogs is continuing to grow, and this provides an opportunity for wineries to have their brands featured on blogs. For wineries with a small public relations budget or those that can't get the attention of the larger media publications, this can be a positive alternative -- especially since some of the more popular wine blogs have thousands of followers and receive 30,000 to 40,000 hits per month.

Another reason is that we have entered a period of "democratization of media on the Internet." This means that anyone can easily establish a wine blog on the Internet using free blogging software (wordpress.com; blogspot.com; typepad.com, etc.). Since there are no official guidelines regarding what can be published, the stories and reviews may be positive or negative. Likewise, bloggers have diverse backgrounds in that some have a high level of wine knowledge and experience, whereas others have none and just want to share their viewpoints on wine. Therefore, in terms of writing quality and level of sophistication of wine blogs, there is great variation. Because of this wineries need to monitor what is being said about their brands online.

How Can Wineries Work With Wine Bloggers?

The advent of wine blogs and other Wine 2.0 applications (social networking sites, online videos, podcasts, message boards, etc.) has created both more opportunities and more work for the public relations function within wineries. Because of the fact that your brand may be discussed online by anyone who happens to buy a bottle -- and that the story can easily be circulated around the globe in a matter of hours, it is important to pay attention: 
• Monitor your brand online to keep track of what people are saying about you. Most wineries have now utilized the Google Alert system, but there are others such as Twitter Search, http://www.trackur.com, and http://www.monitter.com which can provide more information.
• If you find a positive review or mention of your name, consider sending an email to thank the blogger for featuring you.
• If you find a negative review, contact the blogger and ask them for more information. Consider inviting them to visit your winery or a tasting you are hosting so they can learn more about you. DO NOT get in an "online flame war" with a blogger (which has happened in the past). 
• Identify several wine blogs you enjoy reading and keep track of them to see what topics are "hot" on the blogs. 
• If you are a new winery with a less well-known brand consider contacting the blogmaster of wine blogs which interest you. Invite them to visit or taste your wine. 
• If you are in a wine region that is less well-known, identify bloggers who write about your region and invite them to visit or taste your wine. 
• If you are considering starting your own winery blog, make sure to implement it in a professional manner. This means making sure to write new posts at least once a week, but preferably more often. It also means writing interesting stories about what is happening at the winery and other issues, rather than just trying to market your wine. Finally, it means monitoring and responding to the people who post on your blog.
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!

We present a wine marketing workshop

An all-new SecondBase workshop for wine people

Blogging can be a very powerful marketing tool - when done right. Same goes for mobile tools, which are generally fairly inexpensive but can take a degree from MIT and a few episodes of Heroes to muster up enough geek in you to understand, let alone develop yourself. We've therefore invited Adriaan Pienaar from WooThemes and Chris Rolfe from Mobilitrix to join us for an afternoon of 'how-to' in the winelands for our second SecondBase workshop entitled: SecondBase - The digital media 'how-to guide' for the South African wine industry [Part 1] Adriaan runs an extremely successful blog theme company and is an expert on designing, jump-starting and making blogs work. He knows the psychology behind what readers enjoy and how to produce something people are really going to want to become fans of. Chris is an expert in mobile marketing and runs a company that sells innovative mobile marketing products. We've asked him to come along, show us what they do, how they work and how they can drive your sales. We've used them before ourselves - so we know they rock. As part of the SecondBase workshop, which as you know is less talk and more touchy-feely, we'll let you push and poke and play with all the toys so that you leave not only with the info, but the know-how too.This workshop has been designed specifically for the wine industry, so for the first time we'll be hosting it at Mike Ratcliffe's Vilafonté wine cellar in Stellenbosch.As part of the afternoon, we'll also be using the occasion to arm you with some of our brand-new equipment courtesy of Nokia and show you a few exciting and practical uses of some of the tools in one of our legendary 'urban adventures'.

Jon Cherry from Cherryflava also has a hunch as to how Steve Jobs would market his South African wine farm and will share those 'unusual' insights with you.If you're thinking of lifting your marketing game and need a practical guide to the best digital tools and trends right now - then this is your event.

Tickets are rarer than 5-stars in Platter, only 45 available.
Price: R950 per ticket
Date: Tuesday 8 September 2009
Time: 12:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Venue: vilafonté wine cellar, Stellenbosch map: www.vilafonte.com
To book your seat: E-mail Jon Cherry - jon@cherryflava.com
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!

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.
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!

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

Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!

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.

Mike Ratcliffe with Carl & Denise van Coppenhagen from Hattiesburg MS

________________________________________________
Mike Ratcliffe
Warwick Wine Estate
Phone: +27 (0) 21 88 444 10
Fax: +27 (0) 21 88 44025
Skype: mikeatwarwick
Email: mike@warwickwine.com

Mike Ratcliffe and Bartholomew Broadbent with Tasho Katsaboulas at Kats Wine in Jackson Mississippi

________________________________________________
Mike Ratcliffe
Warwick Wine Estate
Phone: +27 (0) 21 88 444 10
Fax: +27 (0) 21 88 44025
Skype: mikeatwarwick
Email: mike@warwickwine.com

Mike Ratcliffe, Bollew Broadbent & Brian Castle at Castle liquor wines in Gulfport, Mississippi

________________________________________________
Mike Ratcliffe
Warwick Wine Estate
Phone: +27 (0) 21 88 444 10
Fax: +27 (0) 21 88 44025
Skype: mikeatwarwick
Email: mike@warwickwine.com

Visiting Drinx Wine in Mississippi.Bartholomew Broadbent, Matt Beard & Mike R.

________________________________________________
Mike Ratcliffe
Warwick Wine Estate
Phone: +27 (0) 21 88 444 10
Fax: +27 (0) 21 88 44025
Skype: mikeatwarwick
Email: mike@warwickwine.com

The story of the Warwick Wedding Cup

An African ‘El Bulli’ feast with Chef Ferran Adria

By Mike Ratcliffe

Ferran Adria, the gastronomic giant of the gourmet world descended on Cape Town last week to participate as a headline guest in South Africa’s very own Design Indaba. There can be very few industries in the world where one person can so single-handedly dominate and command respect from almost every quarter. Like Tiger Woods dominates the world of golf, über-Chef Ferran Adria reigns supreme in the more diverse, subjective and opinionated world of cooking - a world renowned for its egos, tempers and back stabbing antics. The tiny El Bulli restaurant owned and run by Ferran Adria has been called "the most imaginative generator of haute cuisine on the planet" and named best restaurant in the world a record 4 times by Restaurant magazine in 2002, 2006, 2007 & 2008.

And so it was that we gathered in an old warehouse on Commercial Road in Cape Town in anticipation of welcoming this giant into our midst. At the risk of suggesting any insinuation of disappointment, his arrival was underwhelming to say the least. The maestro arrived almost under the radar and slotted into the bar without a hint of pomposity or ritual. In fact he was quietly tucking into a cold beer and smoking a Marlboro on the patio before many of the assembled guests had even acknowledged his arrival. Accompanied by his charming and bubbly wife Isabella, she also acting as translator from their native Catalan, they wowed and charmed the collected admiring throng – never once declining to accept one of endless admiring compliments, give out an autograph, engage in a friendly translated chat or even pose for a photograph. Given the global standing of this man, his impeccable stage presence and ability to appear interested at all times were beyond reproach – such is the burden of celebrity and such is the expectation of global recognition and awe.

We were, in fact, at this beautiful surprising venue for dinner and what a feast we were served. The brief for the evening (apparently) was to translate the term ‘local’ for Ferran Adria – define an answer to what it is that makes cooking in South Africa unique? And local we sure got! A snapshot of a few items on the menu included some imaginative combinations:

§ Biltong Pate, Apricot Leather, rocket leaves on vetkoek

§ Quail egg, Drizzle of buchu oil, dried Ostrich, mustard & arugula leaves

§ Harders, wild sage, seaweed, pickled kelp & bokkam salt

§ Pickled Fish, dried banana chips & toasted coconut

§ Gemsbok, suur vye konfyt, stamp koring & boontjies

§ Springbok tongue, onions, oreganum, red heart rum sauce

§ Ostrich neck Ravioli, mampoer butter

§ Zebra, wild Marog, amarula

To create this veritable ‘who’s who’ of South African staple food, Chef Richard Carstens of Nova in Cape Town teamed up with Topsi Venter, often described as "the doyenne of Cape chefs". Richard Carsten is certainly one of the hottest talents to emerge from South Africa and has appropriately developed a reputation for some ‘experimental and adventurous’ cooking that is not for the faint-hearted. While not for everyone, the radical and inspired menu threw up a lot of ‘culinary curveballs’ that were alternately dodged or devoured by the enthused gallery. Despite my best efforts, it was difficult to attack the Zebra with much gusto and the Springbok tongue felt perfectly inappropriate, irrespective of who it was being served up to. Despite my personal lack of enthusiasm for a few of the over-eager entrees, it did all somehow come together and sitting opposite Senor Adria, I noticed that he finishing everything that was served up to him – to his credit. The evening was perfectly managed by Richard Walsh, co-owner of Nova and one of Cape Town’s most seasoned ‘front of house’ directors in the business.

It should be mentioned that this extravagant evening was made possible by the generous sponsorship of Dick Enthoven & Robbie Brozin, MD of Nandos. Great credit should also be paid to Ravi Naidoo, the inspirational owner of Interactive Africa, the company that runs Design Indaba.

The evening was an excellent opportunity for his-foodiness, Mr Ferran Adria to experience some exotic and imaginative experimental African cuisine; but who better to judge than the man himself? Perhaps Ostrich foam or Zebra ice-cream will be the next big thing in the little town of Roses on the Costa Brava, home to El Bulli? Hold your breath if you must.

Leading London Fine Wine Merchant puts South Africa’s Super Premium Bordeaux 2004 Bordeaux Blends

to the Test in a Star Studded Line Up in London in March 2009.

Leading London independent fine wine merchant, Handford Wines based in South Kensington, London, and who have historically stocked one of the best ranges of South African wine in the UK, recently hosted a block buster blind tasting line up of South African Flagship red Bordeaux blends from the illustrious 2004 vintage. The blind tasting, jam packed with icons and award winning reds, was presented by two Masters of Wine, including one of South Africa’s very own, and only the countries 4^th to achieve this prestigious qualification, Greg Sherwood MW. The tasting line up featured:

Buitenverwachting Christine 2004, Constantia

Sherwood Berriman 2004, Constantia

MR de Compostella 2004, Stellenbosch

Vergelegen V 2004, Stellenbosch

Meerlust Rubicon 2004, Stellenbosch

De Toren Fusion V 2004, Stellenbosch

Rustenberg John X Merriman 2004 (in Magnum), Stellenbosch

Morgenhof Estate Red 2004, Stellenbosch

Beyerskloof Field Blend 2004, Stellenbosch

Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2004, Stellenbosch

Warwick Trilogy 2004, Stellenbosch

Rupert & Rothschild Baron Edmond 2004, Western Cape

Presented in four flights to a panel of expert fine wine consumers, tasters were required to rank their first, second and third best wines, rating their first choice 3 points, their second choice 2 points and their 3 choice 1 point. Scores for the twelve wines were tallied at the end of the tasting and then wines were revealed.

Other than the Constantia pair that opened the proceedings, the evening in reality doubled up as a battle of the blue blooded Simonsberg / Stellenbosch “grand cru classe” blends from South Africa’s prime viticultural region. In assessing the results, Master of Wine Greg Sherwood said “it was always felt that it was going to be a close run affair. With such a high level of quality across the line up, the wines did South Africa proud. There can be no doubt that SA produces some of the best examples of a Bordeaux blend in the world.”

Based on the blind consumer scoring system, the results were as follows:

1 Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2004 with 33 points

2 Vergelegen V 2004 with 11 points

3 Warwick Trilogy 2004 with 10 points

4 MR de Compostella 2004 tied on 9 points

5 Meerlust Rubicon 2004 tied on 9 points

6 De Toren 2004 Fusion V 2004 tied on 9 points

7 Rupert & Rothschild Baron Edmond 2004 tied on 9 points

8 Buitenverwachting Christine 2004 with 8 points

9 Rustenberg John X Merriman 2004 (Magnum) with 5 points

10 Beyerskloof Field Blend 2004 with 3 points

11 Morgenhof Estate Red 2004 tied on 2 points

12 Sherwood Berriman 2004 tied on 2 points

Greg Sherwood MW continued “the congestion of scores around 9 points was pretty much what we expected might happen with so little separating the quality of this batch of prestige red wines. James Handford MW added “I had rather expected a few more stand out block busters in the line up, but overall, the quality was consistently very high. If you consider the price of these wines in relation to the best from Bordeaux, France or Napa Valley, they represent exceptional value for money and importantly, wines that are definitely ageworthy – something important for fine wine collectors globally.”

Greg Sherwood concluded “the is no question that along with Syrah, Syrah blends and a perhaps a handful of top Cape blends, the Bordeaux red blend is certainly one of the strongest cards in the South African wine industries hand. No doubt about the whole being greater than the sum of its parts in this case!”

Tasting hosted by Handford Wines on the 25^th March 2009.

105 Old Brompton Road
South Kensington
London
SW7 3LE
t 0207 589 6113
www.handford.net

Jeremy Sampson, Douglass De Villiers & Erica Morgan-Tanton from Interbrand Sampson in Gauteng joined us for a lively and interesting tasting at Warwick

Warwick Pinotage gets 90 points - again!!!