Wang Xin - Editing Director "Wine in China' magazine

The ultimate Hong Kong status symbol for the wine-lover

Mike Ratcliffe
Warwick Estate & Vilafonte
P.O.Box 2 Elsenburg, 7607, South Africa

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER www.twitter.com/mikeratcliffe

Warwick Wine Dinner - Kempinski Hotel

Beijing, September 2010; On October 15, 2010, Kempinski Hotel Beijing and boutique distributor EMW Fine Wines are proud to host a unique wine-tasting dinner. Taking place in Kranzler’s restaurant, this is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to sample one of the most exciting wineries in South Africa - Warwick Estate.

Warwick Estate is a family-owned and run winery in the famous Stellenbosch region. The land was purchased by Stan & Norma Ratcliffe in 1964, at which time not a single vine grew on the farm. However, The Ratcliffes soon realized the potential of the terroir and began planting Cabernet Sauvignon. The Cabernet Sauvignon vines yielded grapes of notably high quality, which were soon in demand from wholesalers and other wineries. Norma became increasingly interested in the wine-making process, and began to study the subject. Eventually a cellar was in place, and in 1984 the first Warwick vintage was released (a Cabernet Sauvignon). Since 1986, “The Trilogy”, a Bordeaux-style blend, soon became one of the flagships of the South African wine industry. Norma Ratcliffe became her country’s first female winemaker. She even has a wine – “The First Lady” – named after her.

Tom Stevenson, a prolific wine author and regarded as the world’s leading authority on Champagne, holds Warwick Estate in high regard: “Rich, complex wines make Warwick one of the youngest, smallest, and most exciting boutique wineries on the Cape winemaking scene.” In addition, Warwick has implemented an environmental-friendly approach to viticulture, refraining from using pre-emergent herbicides in its vineyards.

At the event, guests will have the opportunity to meet Norma and her son Mike Ratcliffe, the Managing Director of Warwick Estate, and can also sample a hand-picked selection of her wines, including “The First Lady” (Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008), “The Trilogy” (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, 2007), “Old Bush Vines” (Pinotage, 2008) and “The Professor Black” (Sauvignon Blanc, 2009). The wines will be paired with a specially-crafted menu prepared by Executive Chef Thomas Laberer and his team.

In addition to the wine dinner, Warwick wines will also be available at Kempinski Hotel Beijing from October 1 to November 30, 2010.

Warwick Dinner Ticket: RMB 498 per person and subject to 15% surchargeTo reserve tickets, or for more information, please call our F&B Information Desk: 010-6410 4200

Selina Wang from Beijing talks wine

Mountain wines

By Stephen Quinn (China Daily)


The oldest and best wine region in South Africa is around Stellenbosch, a short drive from Cape Town on the country's southern coast. Vines have been grown there since the late 17th century.

High mountains produce a micro-climate that is three to four degrees warmer in summer and a similar number of degrees cooler in winter. This produces a longer ripening period. The best way to visit the vineyards is to take the famous wine routes, established in 1971. The five current routes take you past 148 vineyards. The high number of vineyards also means that prices are competitive. A good time to visit, if you like crowds, is to attend the Stellenbosch Wine Festival, usually held in June each year.

I visited Warwick Estate in early July, just after the festival. The estate started in 1770 as a fruit farm. The Ratcliffe family planted vines in 1964 and winemaking started two decades later. Norma Ratcliffe became one of South Africa's first female winemakers.

Warwick's flagship red, the Trilogy (a traditional Bordeaux blend of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot), was selected in Wine Spectator's top 100 wines around the world for a second time in 2009. I tasted the 2007 Trilogy and, though still young, it had a distinct cigar box aroma and tasted of dark chocolate. The wine receives 24 months in French oak (40 percent new), so it exhibits a dusty tannic structure. This means Trilogy should be cellared for at least eight years after vintage. At about $34 (about 230 yuan) a bottle from the vineyard, it is a bargain.

Another standout wine was the Old Bush Vines pinotage 2008, another bargain at about $13. Pinotage is a grape variety conceived at the University of Stellenbosch, a hybrid made from pinot noir and shiraz. Pinot noir struggles in the South African climate but the hybrid flourishes because of the influence of the more rugged shiraz. Another excellent Warwick wine is the Three Cape Ladies, a blend of pinotage, cabernet sauvignon and shiraz. It sells for $15. It also receives solid oak treatment, this time 23 months in French oak (40 percent new). And it should be cellared for up to a decade before being consumed.

Warwick Estate wines are available in China from East Meets West Fine Wines at 988 Shanxi Bei Road in Shanghai.

Stephen Quinn traveled to Cape Town courtesy of the South African Tourist Board.

The Legend of the Warwick Wedding Cup

Warwick 'The First Lady' Cabernet Sauvignon debuts at Stew Leonards in NY, NJ & CT

Look at the cool banners that are hanging above the stocks of wine!

C'mon all you wine lovers in Yonkers, Danbury, Newington, Newark & Springfield.

Is Webwine making us all Stupid?

By Mike Ratcliffe

Twitter, if used correctly, is in effect an online filter perfectly tailored to providing you with immediate relevant connection to any particular world that you choose. You can reduce your volume, increase it. You can broaden the depth of info that you receive and you can narrow it by defining what you want to hear. When you repeatedly hear something that you don't like - you can unfollow/delete and never received that info again. twitter is perfectly Darwinian in that only the strongest sources of info should survive. Of course this only really applies to people that apply their minds to utilising the Twitter strengths intelligently. Conversely there is a very strong Machiavellian tendency from some twitter users/pushers/marketers to manipulate the environment that they portray and create a false sense of reality that they would like their followers to buy into. Again, most intelligent Twitter practioners will eventually smell the distinct aroma of BS and simply unfollow. For my own purposes, twitter is fast becoming a prime source of information as I have a very clear vision of what I am trying to get out of it. But Twitter is really a windo into a world of information rather than the information itself. Twitter is a conveyor belt bringing me what I want - and I control Twitter - not the converse.

Jenny Ratcliffe launches new 'WINE STYLE' magazine at Warwick

The Warwick Team is going on tour to Durban and Johannesburg. We will be hosting a couple of 'rocking' wine dinners. A few tickets remaining. Join me

Click on the link to enlarge for details.

Warwick 'The First Lady' Cabernet Sauvignon included into the Wine Enthusiast 'Top 100' value wines in the World for 2010

Mike Ratcliffe was the auctioneer at the Jan Kriel School charity auction - raised R317,000 after expenses

The beauty of new springtime growth in the Cabernet vineyards

Mike Ratcliffe
Warwick Estate & Vilafonte
P.O.Box 2 Elsenburg, 7607, South Africa

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER www.twitter.com/mikeratcliffe

Trilogy Recommendation

Warwick Estate Trilogy 2007

Stellenbosch, South Africa

Dry Red (Cork), 14.5% abv

Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot are aged for 20 months in mostly older French oak. Big plush nose, with that very characteristic herbal note that is part of the Warwick terroir. Strong minty and eucalyptus character. Thick, sweet, ripe fruit powers through and this is close to being a blockbuster, but it retains finesse and savoury bite. Find on http://www.wine-searcher.com/ 

Score: 93/100

http://www.thewinegang.com/

Warwick Wine Dinners at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse

Follow or Leader at Warwick Estate?

Lordy lord, I’ve been sick! I hate, hate, hate losing my tastebuds – if you work in the wine industry, it’s actually one of the scariest of things (what if they don’t come back?) so I will be highly delighted when cheese tastes like cheese, broccoli tastes like broccoli and wine tastes like wine once more.

I fell sick almost immediately after going to Warwick last week – and I refuse to believe the two are related. In fact, I am almost sure that the delicious food I ate and the fantastic wine I drank probably warded off a much worse bout of flu than I have actually ended up with. There was no real occasion for the lunch – just a general get-together for some media and trade and a chance to serve a few small sheeps’ legs to us all.

 

We started off with a round-up of wines which Mike Ratcliffe, MD of Warwick, says he doesn’t generally put into tastings. Following on from our Twitter fest just a few days before, I was hoping for more Cab Franc as it was so yum, but instead, we started with Sauvignon and Chardonnay, moved on to Pinotage and finished up with the new releases of Three Cape Ladies and Trilogy.

I must say, I find Warwick’s wines to be almost universally satisfying. The Chardonnay is beautifully balanced – plenty of wood to be sure, but lots of fruit, good acidity and all very seamlessly integrated. I found it a tad bizarre that the Chardonnay was in a cork closure whilst the Pinotage was in screwcap but Mike didn’t really have any good reason why – it’s just what they thought they could sell and he was happy to follow the market.

In fact, if anything was strangely incongruous about the day, it was how much Mike kept coming back to the idea of being a follower rather than a leader. For a start, I’m not sure how much I believe him, but secondly, I think he is seriously depriving the wine industry of a figure of intelligence, forethought and stature by taking such a back seat. As the lunch wore on and Mike spoke of his foray into the world of the Cape Blend, of his decision to keep labelling the Pinotage as Old Bush Vines despite the fact that much of it isn’t, the whole screwcap thing – all rather strange and a tad disingenuous from someone who probably owns the pulse, let alone merely has his finger on it.

But enough modesty – Mike’s wines can speak for themselves whatever the circumstances – and when he started digging around in the wine library with a rabidly thirsty Christian Eedes (www.whatidranklastnight.co.za) and Roland Peens (www.winecellar.co.za), it was clear that I should have booked a taxi or used Goodfellas (www.gfellas.com) instead of spitting and driving as usual. Perhaps if I had done, I might have fought off infection for another day. Suffice it to say that the 1999 Chardonnay was awesome, but not quite as good as the older Trilogys or Pinotages with the lamb shank. Who cares if the sheep have to hop? Not me.

It was a lovely day at Warwick. Whether he’s being modest or not, Mike is a generous and warm host with plenty to show off on the farm and plenty to be proud of in all he and his family have achieved. The business is booming – all in all, Mike attributes an additional R2.5 million turnover to the World Cup and expects to build on that this coming summer - especially in the restaurant with their gourmet picnics and family-friendly attitude. If you haven’t been to the farm for a while, go and take a look. Whether they’re following fashion or setting it, there’s plenty to see, drink and do with the Ratcliffe family this year.

Drunk, Cathy Marston

Warwick and Vilafonte go on tour!

Fantastic news - we are going on tour! Together with Cathryn Henderson, Editor of Wine Magazine, I will be hosting three incredible Warwick and Vilafonte food and wine dinners across the country over the next 2 months. Enjoy an all-star line-up of our much loved wines paired with a five-course tasting menu, prepared by top chefs at 3 of the hottest and trendiest new venues. Why not put together a table with your mates?

Tickets cost R450 per person and include wine and gratuity. Book now by calling 0860 100 205 or email subs@ramsaymedia.co.za For more information, please contact Jane Eedes on 021 530 3308 janee@ramsaymedia.co.za

Join me for some great wine, awesome food and lots of fun.

Mike Ratcliffe

Is Franc the Future for Cape Wine?

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Cathy Marston © Cape Times Friday 27th August 2010

For many winelovers, Cab is king. But after an incredible tasting last week, I think that the real question we should all be asking is – which Cab are we talking about? Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the most well-travelled grapes in the world, happily putting down roots in both Northern and Southern hemispheres, making wines in practically every winemaking country there is, oomphing up Chiantis and spicing up Cape Blends. But behind every great grape, there is an even greater one and in this case, it's a variety called Cabernet Franc. And that was the focus of our tasting at the Cru Café in the Cape Quarter last week. DNA tests have now proved that Cabernet Sauvignon is actually the love child of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. Both Sauvignon and Cabernet Sauvignon have enjoyed massive success over the years (if you want to try a few, then head for the Wine Concepts Seductive Sauvignon Festival tonight at the Vineyard Hotel. Call 021 671 9030 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 021 671 9030 end_of_the_skype_highlighting for tickets) but Cabernet Franc has rather languished in the shallows of obscurity. It is used in Bordeaux and makes all the red wines in the Loire Valley, but hasn't really achieved the success of its more famous child. Last week's tasting set out to prove that all Cab Franc needed was a new country in which to showcase its talents, and various top wine Twitterers and twittering winemakers convened to discuss the topic. We were joined online by internationally-acclaimed wine guru, Jancis Robinson, along with another celebrated UK journalist, Tim Atkin, both adding their 10c to the discussion. Leading the tasting and towering over us all, both literally and vinously, was Bruwer Raats of Raats Family Wines, widely considered one of the finest Cabernet Franc winemakers in the world. The tasting covered Bruwer's wines and another Cape Cab Franc legend from Warwick Estate, and included newer entries to the market such as Haut Espoir's fascinating versions made from high-altitude vineyards in Franschhoek (these were barrel samples and will only be released in a few years time – get yourself on the list now!). The Signal Hill Cab Franc from new vineyards in Kalk Bay – only 86m away from the sea – was particularly interesting. Owner/winemaker Jean-Vincent Ridon explained that there was so much salt on the grapes, he originally thought he would have to wash them before foot-stomping, but eventually decided to leave them as they were, creating a perfumed wine which perfectly expresses its terroir. One awesome wine followed another, each one showing style, individuality and elegance, each one confirming our growing opinions that Cabernet Franc has got an amazing future in South Africa – I was glad that I'd booked those lovely drivers from Goodfellas (www.gfellas.co.za) to take me home because there was very little spitting going on anywhere around the table! Everyone was passionate about this variety either as a single cultivar which is what Bruwer and Jean-Vincent believe or as part of a blend such as Warwick Trilogy – Neil Moorhouse from Zorgvliet is punting Cab Franc/Merlot blends as ones to watch so remember where you heard it first!

For those of you who've never tried a Cabernet Franc, it is fairly similar to a Cabernet Sauvignon in that it generally has lots of dense, dark black fruits and sturdy tannins, but Cabernet Franc also has a spicy green edge to it which can manifest itself as herbal, perfumed and aromatic giving multiple layers of flavour and complexity. If you want to give it a go, then entry-level priced ones include L'Avenir at R50, Zorgvliet at R65, Eikendal at R70 and Signal Hill Constantia Cab Franc also at R70. And if, you've already been converted to Cabernet Franc then you can do no better than a bottle of Warwick at R235, the fascinating Signal Hill Kalk Bay at R250 or the Raats Family at R280. Give one of them a go this weekend – I've tasted the future, and the future's Franc!
Cathy is wine editor of www.Food24.com. For more information visit www.cathymarston.co.za or follow her on Twitter @CathyMarston

The story of the Warwick Wedding Cup

Mike presenting a vertical tasting of Warwick Trilogy & Vilafonte 'Series C' at the home of Derek Prout-Jones