Cabernet Franc 1.5l

A freshly made tagliatelle with a duck ragout would be truly outstanding, or even just the pasta with a few fresh truffle shavings would make this combo memorable. A grilled rib eye steak on the bone with an anchovy butter and some creamed spinach would also work. It is a great cheese match but keep the cheese to the gooey kind and steer away from blue cheese as it is very hard to match for any wine.

The 2014 growing season started with a cold and wet winter, the wettest winter on record at Warwick. Initial vineyard growth was slow due to late cold fronts in August, followed by cool, wet weather at the beginning of the growing season. The growing season started with bud break, two weeks later than the previous season. Cold, wet weather during early spring caused initial slow shoot growth but picked up after the first warm days in October. Flowering and berry set was even as a result of below normal rain in October. A warm but wet November stimulated growth and extensive canopy management was needed to ensure the vines remained balanced. The 2014 vintage started two weeks later than normal, but due to a warm February mo n t h the Cabernet Franc vineyards were harvested only one week later than normal.

Aged in 225L French oak barrels for 22 months. 40% new. Coopers – Demptos, Boutes, Tarensaud, Sylvain.

Grapes where hand harvested on Warwick Estate at sunrise into lug boxes. The cold bunches were destemmed and berries hand sorted before being transferred to a stainless steel tank. Cold soaking for five days preceded fermentation. The tank took 10 days to ferment followed by post fermentation maceration of 14 days. The must was then transferred to stainless steel tanks for malolactic fermentation before barrel ageing.

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.