The Blue Lady

Dry aged roasted fillet of beef, with creamy baked potatoes and salt crusted sugar snap peas.

Warwick Estate lies in a valley enclosed by the Simonsberg Kanonkop and Klapmutskop. Originally part of a vast piece of land known as Good Success this eighteenth century farm belonged to Colonel Alexander Gordon who renamed his portion in honour of the Warwickshire regiment which he commanded during the Boer War. Years later in 1964 Stan Ratcliffe bought Warwick where with considerable foresight he began planting the precious Cabernet Sauvignon vines which are still a major part of the production today. These vines produced high quality grapes and became highly sought after by wholesalers and other wineries. However it took the arrival of Norma Ratcliffe Stan's beautiful and energetic wife in 1971 for the family to begin making a few experimental wines from Cabernet Sauvignon. The early results were very encouraging and served to extol the virtues of what is surely some of the best terroir in South Africa. Michael Ratcliffe Norma's son has now taken over as proprietor in Stan's retirement and has wasted no time in stamping his personality on the Estate. A host of new innovative techniques learnt during his postgraduate wine studies in Australia are being implemented aimed at maximizing the potential of the Warwick terroir. Under Michael's leadership the Warwick team is striving to take the next step in quality.

After completion, the wine was racked to French oak barrels (33% new oak, 33% second fill, 34% third and fourth fill) for a period of 23 months. Components are blended and allowed to clarify naturally before filtration and bottling in June 2023.

Made up from 2 vineyards, one on a Northly Facing slope and the other on a South-Easterly slope, each component was harvested separately, de-stemmed and hand sorted into tank. The wines spent between 14 and 21 days on the skins, depending on their tannin structure with two to three pump overs per day. Once the fermentation is completed the wines are pressed to undergo malolactic fermentation in barrel and tank.