Warwick Estate

There is always a ‘buzz’ around this dynamic farm in Stellenbosch and this is largely driven by Mike Ratcliffe with his boundless energy and marketing skills. This year sees the very exciting launch of the new wine to the Warwick wine offerings in the form of the new First Lady Unoaked Chardonnay 2011. Nic van Aarde, the recent wine making appointment from Mulderbosch joined the team in 2011 and has already made a mark by putting together a delicious blend of Unoaked Chardonnay to be launched in March 2012. We had a very interesting bench-mark ‘blind’ tasting on three Warwick samples pitched against several other recognised leading brands of un-wooded or un-oaked Chardonnay and all three scored impressively higher than their opposing offerings – and it was not a set up! This bodes well for the ‘little yellow sister’ which is line-priced alongside the First Lady Cabernet Sauvignon that has become such a firm favourite in the past few years.
There will also be some new faces in 2012 helping us to market the Warwick brand in 2012. Many of you know James Dare who has been with the farm for a number of years but who has decided to return to the UK with his family, we shall miss him and his commitment to Warwick and wish him well in the northern hemisphere. James is replaced with incumbent Tom Legge who is relocating from the UK to South Africa, we look forward to working with him and Mike in 2012. Changes often occur but one thing that doesn’t change is this farm’s commitment to being at the starting blocks of any quality-driven wine sale and the infusion of new talent and ideas will see this Estate further ratcheting up standards this year.