007 Drinks Three Cape Ladies Pinotage Blend

Carte Blanche, the new James Bond novel written by Jeffrey Deaver, has James Bond choosing Warwick’s ‘Three Cape Ladies’ Cape Blend to accompanyhis seduction of Felicity Willing.

“ ...vintage Three Cape Ladies, a red blend from Muldersvlei in the Cape. Bond knew its reputation. He took out the cork and poured. They sat on the sofa and sipped. “Wonderful” he said.”

Three Cape Ladies is a delicious Cape Blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage, Merlot and Shiraz.

Picture courtesy of Mike Ratcliffe's blog at blog.warwickwine.com

Picnic at Warwick Estate

To Warwick Estate on the R44 north of Stellenbosch towards Paarl. This time last year they had builders constructing a new tasting facility and now it is complete. From the noise, dust and bulldozers then I had expected wholesale destruction and rebuilding, but that has not happened.

The old historic barrel cellar has been most sympathetically modified to include a delicatessen and much expanded tasting room displaying Warwick’s current and library wines for sale.

The wooden deck I remember from my first visit in 1996 is still there, overlooking the lake and there is a new open area shaded by trees under which tables and chairs are dotted.

Near the lake are shelters woven from branches in which you can picnic with foods from the delicatessen and fresh baked ciabiatta bread. A cleverly designed cardboard box contains a cold meal for two: open it to find small jars of chutney, dips, hummus, couscous, salmon smoked on the farm over wine barrels, charcouterie, cheeses and more and to finish off there’s incredible brownies and a bag of Maynards Wine Gums to take away.

But what about the wines? Warwick are known for their ‘Old Bush Vine’ Pinotage and the latest vintage release, 2009, is on track to be one of the best. Deep plummy yummy fruits on the front are followed by rather firm tannins on the finish. The wine spent 14 months in second and third fill 225L barriques and I think it needs a little more time in bottle for the fruit and tannins to meld.


To my surprise while I was in the tasting room a party from The Circle of Wine Writers arrived for an invited tour and tasting. Many were friends with whom I had visited other wine regions and they insisted I join them for a tour of the vineyards in Warwick’s safari truck and Managing Director and co-owner Mike Ratcliffe kindly invited me to picnic with them afterwards.

Mike's new intensely planted trellised Pinotage vineyard is now coming on stream and he remarks that the ‘Old Bush Vine’ labelling is now more of a brand name because grapes from trellised vines were also used. Production has increased to meet growing demand. Mike revealed that some Pinotage grapes had been partially dried and blended in to give added complexity and that this year he was experimenting with making an Amarone style Pinotage. But he said that he was always experimenting and admitted most didn’t work out the way he hoped.

I also tasted Warwick’s ‘Three Cape Ladies’ 2007 Cape Blend. I had enjoyed this a few days previously at a braai with friends. Originally a blend of three varieties, this vintage contains a fourth — a dash of Merlot. The other three are Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage and Shiraz. It is a popular and classy wine, like good Bordeaux with a richness and sweetness you don’t find in claret.

Mike mused if the name required him to use just three varieties or whether his mission was to make the best wine he could for that vintage and he felt that if a splash of Merlot (he thought maybe 5%) improved it, he should go ahead. Mike said he was going to increase the percentage of Pinotage from next year now that he had more producing vines.

Mike was in a philosophical mood. He posed a question about whether old vines produced better wines than young vines that started a long discussion among the wine writers. But he soon was back to business when viticulturist Ronald Spies, who’d walked us through the vineyards, arrived with bunches of Pinotage grapes. They tasted so ripe and sweet, but Mike detected unripe stalks and said he’d instruct that their imminent picking was delayed for another week.

Warwick are proud that their Bordeaux blend Trilogy has just been selected by The Wine Society for aging. Several thousand cases would be held back for some years until judged nicely mature for release; this was the first South African wine to be treated this way.

Cellar Door prices: Warwick ‘Old Bush Vine’ Pinotage 2009 costs 95R, Three Cape Ladies 2007 is 105R and Trilogy 2008 is 235R. Warwick Wine Family Club members get 20% discount.

Warwicks vineyards looking towards the Simonsberg mountains

Video - Mike Ratcliffe of Warwick Estate - Pinotage in China

Mike Ratcliffe talks about Warwick's Old Vine Pinotage in China, how it matches with spicy Chinese food and the benefits of chilling.

Mike is MD of Warwick Estate

Video- Norma Ratcliffe of Warwick Estate

It was good to renew acquaintence with Norma Ratcliffe owner of, and first winemaker at, Warwick Estate.

MD son Mike usually travels the world on his own promoting Warwick but Norma joined him on this trip. They had just returned from a couple of weeks in China where they got involved in matching Chinese cuisine with Warwick wines. Norma said the Chinese were very enthusiastic about the wine with Pinotage especially successful matching dishes.

Here Norma talks about Warwick's Three Cape Ladies 2007 Cape Blend comprising 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Pinotage, 27% Shiraz, 4% Merlot

Three Cape Ladies Cape Blend -- by Mike Ratcliffe (video)

I met Mike Ratcliffe of Warwick Estate at the South Africa Mega Tasting this month and asked him to tell me about his Three Cape Ladies Cape Blend.



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Three W’s – Warwick, Welmoed & Wolf

My home town of Snorbens is lucky to have a fine independent wine shop in Flagship Wines which is owned and operated by Julia Jenkins who chucked in her high-powered position as wine buyer for Sainsbury’s supermarket to go it alone.

Julia organises many functions and for this past month she has focused on South Africa with shippers and winemakers presenting tastings of wines from Lourensford, Slow Wines, Welmoed, Graham Beck, Kumkani, Warwick Estate, Painted Wolf and more.

I couldn’t let the ebullient Jeremy Borg, owner and winemaker of the new Painted Wolf wines, visit Snorbens without saying hello so I picked up my crutches and dragged my broken leg along to Flagship Wines.

Jeremy was in great form and ,as well as his Pinotage and Cape Blend already opened for the tastings, he had some unlabelled bottles of some new wines he’s working on which he specially opened and poured. A Viognier based blend was invitingly aromatic.

Of course I bought some bottles of Painted Wolf, then Julia mentioned out she had a consignment of Warwick Estate Old Bush Vine Pinotage – which is an old favourite of mine from way back – so without even looking at it I asked her to add a few bottles to my order. Then Julia pointed out an offer on Welmoed Pinotage, discounted to two for £5. I’d had a Welmoed Pinotage a long time ago and it wasn’t a name that impressed. Julia told me that Welmoed was one of the brands of the company of wine people, a name that irritates me no end with its insistence on all lower case letters with different coloured 'p's.

My leg was aching and I let off some moans about the company’s stupid name, and that Welmoed was an anonymous brand made who knows where from who knows what by who knows who (whereas I had walked among Warwick’s old bush vines, and knew who made Painted Wolf). Jeremy let me run out of steam before quietly telling me that he had done work for the company of wine people and that he thought that Welmoed was a pretty good Pinotage for the price. Suitably chastened, I bought a couple of bottles.

And you know what? Jeremy was right. Welmoed Pinotage 2007 turned out to be a jolly enjoyable wine with no rough edges, clean fresh and modern with an attractive raspberry fruitiness. And another plus was that it was closed with a screwcap.

The Warwick was also a surprise. The WO wasn’t the expected Stellenbosch-Simonsberg, which is where Warwick Estate is located and an appellation that owner Mike Ratcliffe had campaigned for, but the wine was labelled as Stellenbosch WO and the back label said that it was made by Warwick Cellars. Warwick Cellars – WTF? Examining the labels in detail I noticed that the word Estate appeared nowhere, and so this wasn’t the Estate wine I thought I’d bought -- the wine made from those 40 year-old bush vines whose vineyards I’d been describing to Julia and Jeremy. This wine was made at Warwick from some, or all, non-estate grapes. Looking carefully at Warwick’s website it seems that 2003 was the last vintage made from Estate grapes, but one is invited to “Download the Warwick Estate Pinotage 2005 fact sheet” and the fact sheet is headed Warwick Estate so there is opportunity for confusion.

But in the glass – wow, this Warwick ‘Cellars’ old bush vine Pinotage 2005 (we now don’t know how old) is tremendous stuff. Complex with different levels of flavours, soft wood tannins underneath, blackberries, a little dark chocolate and a dusting of coffee but always dense black fruits to the fore. Indeed, it was so good that the following day we couldn’t think of any wine we’d prefer to drink so for the first time I can ever recall at Pinotage Club Towers we drank the same wine on two consecutive two nights.

And Painted Wolf? I bought the 2007 Pinotage which I preferred to the (less expensive) Cape Blend. There’s lots going on; as I wrote back in June it is a galumphing big wine and after drinking a bottle, although very enjoyable, I think that needs more time in the bottle for all its flavours to completely meld together, so I’m sticking away the rest of the bottles I bought for a year.

So my visit to see Jeremy and Julia resulted in some surprises for me. So I headed back to to Flagship Wines to stock up on more Welmoed and Warwick Pinotages, but Julia had sold out of Welmoed and was waiting for another delivery. So I paid, collected the Warwick and I'm now waiting for Julia to deliver the Welmoed.

Warwick Plants Worlds Most Advanced Pinotage Vineyard

Warwick Estate’s Cape Blend, Three Cape Ladies, accounts for a third of the estate’s sales.

That means, Mike Ratcliffe (pictured left in Warwick's 40 year old bush wine Pinotage vineyard) tells me, that Warwick are planting another 6 hectares of Pinotage in what will be “the world’s most advanced Pinotage vineyard.”

They’re planting at a density of 7,000 vines per hectare. “We’re taking vigour control to new heights", says Mike. “We need to get Pinotage to stop over producing and we’re doing it by natural competition. Vines will be competing against each other and cover crops. We’re aiming for 10 tons per hectare, which we think is optimal but goes against current thinking.”

Warwick uses high altitude photographs from satellites to monitor each vine, pressure tests on leaves to check on water take-up and the new vineyard will link these tools to a computer controlled drip irrigation system.

Do you Recognise this Man?

He is 'making some of South Africa's finest reds' and is one of five of the wine worlds 'movers & shakers' selected to have their picture on the front cover of The Wine Society new wine list.

The others are Thibault Despagne of Chateau Bel Air, Susana Balbo in Argentina, Etienne Hugel in Alsace, Serge Hochar of Chateau Musar in Lebanon and Giovanni Manetti of Fontodi Estate in Chianti.

But in pride of place in the centre is this image of Warwick Estate's Mike Ratcliffe.

Warwick' wines currently listed by the Wine Society are their Trilogy bordeaux blend and a specially crafted Cape Blend. Winemaker Louis Nel told me that that for the Wine Society he experimented by adding some Shiraz to the Three Cape Ladies blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinotage. The Wine Society blend was so succesful that Shiraz then became part of the ever popular Three Cape Ladies.

The Wine Society's Exhibition Cape Blend 2004 (£8.95) is aged in oak for 24 months and is a serious richly textured and fruity wine and very enjoyable now, but I'm keeping some back for aging.

The Wine Society, whose full name is The International Exhibition Co-operative Wine Society is the world's oldest wine society, founded in 1874 after the international exhibition in London that year was left with some barrels of wine. The Society is owned by its members . Membership is forlife and can be passed on to your descendents. The Society maintains a wide range of own label wines in two tiers. The Exhibition range is the premium one.


Pictured: the Society's 144 page wine list featuring Mike Ratcliffe on the cover

Vintage Videos

At this time of year in the Cape winelands you cannot help notice it is vintage time.

Slow tractors haul hoppers laden with grapes along the side of roads, bright colours dot green hillside vineyards showing where teams of pickers are working. The air around wineries is heavy with the smell of fermenting grapes and winemakers carry a glazed look from sleepless nights and their clothes are stained purple with juice splashes.

It is a wonderful time, and I am glad to be here.

For those that cannot, Beyerskloof are putting videos of this years harvest on their website here - http://www.beyerskloof.co.za/story.php?mid=101&pid=60 , and so are Warwick Estate here
http://www.warwickwine.com/framework/VidGal.asp

Warwick's first shows their famous old bush vine Pinotage being checked for ripeness by viticulturist Ronald Spies.

President Picks Pinotage

Warwick Estate were the official wine supplier for the 13th International Investment Council dinner held in George last month.

Warwick’s ‘Old Bush Vines’ Pinotage was the preferred choice Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa, and he took the opportunity to carefully study the back label, pictured right.

Warwick Estate’s Managing Director Mike Ratcliffe says the ‘Old Bush Vines’ Pinotage “went down a treat.”



Picture of President Thabo Mbeki taken from Warwicks blog at www.warwickwine.blogspot.com is Copyright © Warwick Estate and is used with kind permission.

SA Winemakers “Slate Pinotage”

South African Winemakers Louis Nel and David Trafford “slated the country’s signature grape Pinotage” according to Harpers magazine (21/09).

Harpers quotes David Trafford (de Trafford Wines - pictured right) saying “It’s a grape for wine anoraks – you have to go through a lot of bad Pinotages to find a good one. Even when you get a good Pinotage right, it goes through funny stages in the bottle and could look pretty dumb.”

Louis Nel ( (Warwick Estate - pictured left) weighs in with “Pinotage is a lot like Merlot – and there’s a lot of dodgy Merlots. Even boring Cabernet is good but there’s a lot of bad Pinotage.”

Call me biased, but I reckon you could change the word Pinotage for Pinot Noir in David Trafford’s statement and it would be just as valid.

Harpers is a UK weekly trade magazine

Spex Selex - Warwick

Wine Spectator Online really has got the taste for Pinotage, selecting Warwick's Pinotage as Wine editors Daily Pick for today, 17 March, the third time this month Pinotage has been picked - joining previous picks Kanonkop 04 and Simonsig 04 .

James Molesworth says of Warwick's 2005 'Old Bush Vine' Pinotage "Ripe and creamy, with mocha, blackberry, plum and spice flavors that run through the medium-weight, fleshy finish. A very modern style. Drink now. 2,500 cases made. (88 points, $23)