The Warwick Blue Lady is the flagship of the South African top winery Warwick . It is a wine coming from a single vineyard Cabertnet Sauvignon and goes back to the very first wine produced under the Warwick label, then released in 1984 under the label "La Femme Bleu". An example of Quintessential Simonsberg Cabernet - powerful and rich and with enormous aging options.

The cabernet grapes from the single vineyard are harvested by hand for a period of four days. The harvest started in the early morning and stopped before the temperature reached 28 ° C. The bunches of grapes are stalked, gently crushed and sorted by hand. The wine is first soaked at a kopude temperature to extract color before the fermentation starts. An isolated yeast culture from Bordeaux was added and a warm short fermentation was done with daily pump-overs. After fermentation, the wine was left on the skin for a week so that the tannins polymerized. A light pressing was done, after which the wine underwent malolactic fermentation in stainless steel tanks. The maturing took place on medium and lightly toasted French oak barrels for 18 months. The wine was then bottled with only a very light filtration and then got 12 months of bottle aging. This Blue Lady did not arrive in the Netherlands until December 2019.

The Blue Lady is (dark) garnet red. In the nose we mainly smell blackberries and creme de cassis with hints of graphite and tobacco leaves all combined to promise a mouthful of power. The full bodied wine has a lush texture and a wealth of fruit with complex layers that you have to peel while sipping; expect hearty notes from roasted meat to fresh violets, coffee and a mineral element. The Blue Lady offers an intensity and purity; with a balanced symmetry that is pure poetry.

Warwick Estate is located near Stellenbosch, on the way to Paarl. This winery has a long history that originated in the year 1791. In the time between 1791 and 1920 it bore a different name and was called "Good Success". This name was changed by the then owner Alexander Gordon from Warwick to the Warwickshire regiment in which he served. In 1964, Stan and Norma Ratcliffe bought the estate and started planting Cabernet Sauvignon. At that time, they sold the grapes and did not use them for their own production, despite the fact that Norma wanted it. She followed a wine making study and a wine cellar was built. The first Vintage from Warwick was 1984. Stan and Norma's son Mike have been at the helm of the company for several years. He is helped by winemaker Louis Nel.

The Warwick wines are certified organic which means that no fertilizer, chemical pesticides or pesticides are used such as herbicides. At Warwick they go one step further and determine the sun and moon phases for harvesting and pruning work

93 points - Decanter
"Intriguing, multi-layered nose or violet, creme de cassis, blueberry and black cherry. Palate has impressive focus, with pristine fruit and wonderful textural harmony; class in a bottle!"

Gold - International Wine and Spirit Competition
"Dark ruby color with cream of cassis, subtle herb aromas and flavors. Rounded with good length and balance."

Platter's South African Wine Guide 2018 about the winery
"A new era with the 2017 sale of the Stellenbosch family farm where matriarch Norma Ratcliffe made the first Warwick wines in the early 1980s, to Charles Marston and Kishore Bopardikar or San Francisco investment company Eileses Capital. Next came the duos acquisition of neighboring Distell-owned Uitkyk (with its rare Cape Georgian homestead) Sharing an 18th-century history, the properties combine some 700 hectares of prime Simonsberg-Stellenbosch terroir under the Warwick brand name Warwick viticulturists Ronald Spies and Marko Roux and Uitkyk's Rudi Buys are replanting some 170ha on Uitkyk and Warwick with cabernet, cabernet franc and merlot, recognizing the area's suitability for classic Bordeaux varieties. "

The Little Johnson Wine Guide 2018
"Famous. The visitor-friendly winery of the Ratcliffe family on the outskirts of Stellenbosch offers a very fine Bordeaux blend-trilogy: the barrel-aged cabernet sauvignon Blue Lady, the fragrant cabernet franc and the lush chardonnay (with and without wood tones) "