The Story
The old vines on the farm have no irrigation but due to the wet cold winter and dry summer the vines naturally yielded grapes with great concentration of avour and higher than average yields.
The di erent vineyards and parcels were hand picked. The bunches were destemmed and crushed and passed through a mash cooler to a pneumatic press. Two hours of skin contact with enzymes and Vitamin C after which reductive winemaking techniques were followed (CO2 used as blanketing). Cold settled for two days and inoculated with saccharomyces yeast for aromatics and wild yeast strains for palate weight. Fermented at 13–16 degrees Celsius in stainless steel tanks for 15–21 days. Kept on the gross lees for four months with weekly lees stirring. A light ltration and ning was done just before bottling.
COLOR: Pale yellow green, vibrant shimmer
TASTE: Crisp entry, mouth-watering unison of kiwi fruit, tropical fruit salad following through to a dry fresh lingering nish.
AGEING POTENTIAL: Drink now but will gain complexity with time in bottle.
PAIRING SUGGESTIONS
Goats cheese with pork terrine, freshly chucked oysters, seared tuna encrusted in sesame seeds with a honey ginger citrus sauce. Chargrilled red peppers with a mint, cumin and Bulgarian yogurt dipping sauce.
Wine Information
Warwick Wine Estate was known as the farm ‘Good Success’ from 1791 until 1902. After the Anglo-Boer war, Colonel Alexander Gordon from the Warwickshire regiment bought the farm and renamed it ‘Warwick’ as a tribute to his regiment. In 1964 Warwick was purchased by Stan and Norma Ratcliffe. The Ratcliffes recognized the quality of the terroir and began planting Cabernet Sauvignon, selling grapes to wholesalers and other wineries until 1984 when the first Warwick vintage was released. Norma Ratcliffe was the first female winemaker in South Africa and her winemaking talent was quickly recognized around the world. Estate Reserve (known outside the U.S. as Trilogy) soon became a paragon of the South African wine Industry. The farm today is still very much a family affair. In2001, Stan and Norma’s son Mike assumed the role of Managing Director.