First Lady Pinotage

First Lady Pinotage

First Lady Pinotage was Norma Ratcliffe who was (literally) the first lady winemaker to operate commercially in South Africa. Today, our CEO Christiane von Arnim carries the baton for career women everywhere. And by “baton”, we mean another bottle of this delectably juicy cab!

Vibrant nose of rose petal, fresh currents,strawberries, cherry, and spice. The palate is brightwith finely textured tannins, red cherry, strawberry,and ripe plums. finish. The finish, nice and dry with ahint of cedarwood and spice. Enjoy now or age forthe next three to five years

Grapes are picked at optimal ripeness andtransported to the cellar and de-stemmed into tank.The wine spent between 4 and 7 days on the skinsdepending on the tannin structure, with three to fourpump overs per day and then pressed to undergomalolactic fermentation in tank.

Warwick Estate is a family-owned and run winery. Managing Director Michael Ratcliffe is the 3rd generation family member to oversee this high quality boutique operation. From 1771 till 1902, Warwick was known as the farm ‘De Goede Sukses’. After the Anglo Boer war ended in 1902, Colonel William Alexander Gordon, Commanding Officer of the Warwickshire regiment bought the historic farm. He renamed it ‘Warwick’ as a tribute to his regiment and the rest, as they say, is history. Stan Ratcliffe purchased Warwick on April 1st 1964 after an extensive search for the best ‘terroir’ in the Cape. Together with his wife Norma, they soon realized the potential of the extraordinary property and began planting Cabernet Sauvignon. The Cabernet Sauvignon vines produced high quality grapes, which were soon in demand from neighbouring wineries. Norma became more and more interested in the making of wine and began to study the subject. Soon a cellar was in place and Norma began producing her own handcrafted wines using the Warwick grapes. Warwick Estate has implemented an (environment friendly/biological) approach to produce top quality grapes each year. A few years ago the farm started to refrain from using pre-emergent herbicide in their vineyards.

The nose shows dark cherries, strawberries, bitter chocolate and cured meat. The palate is light and lively with great fruit and fine powdery tannins with the same cherry notes following through on to the palate along with rooibos tea and touch of oak spice.

To find out more about the winery click here

To see our full range of Warwick Estate Wines go to the website by clicking here

First Lady Pinotage