WITH the recent announcement of Wine Spectator’s ‘Top 100’ list for 2009, Warwick has made history with their flagship Bordeaux-style blend, Trilogy, featuring at number 46.
Warwick Trilogy 2006 scored 93 points in Wine Spectator, the joint highest score ever for a South African Bordeaux-style blend.
This is also the first time that a South African Bordeaux-style blend has been included in the highly influential ‘Top 50’ on the Wine Spectator list.
Mike Ratcliffe and the Warwick team have long been champions of the Bordeaux-style blend, having produced the first vintage of Warwick Trilogy in 1986.
After more than 21 years of crafting Trilogy, the ongoing accolades continue to bring recognition to this small artisanal family winery.
The ‘Top 100’ announcement shows that Warwick’s philosophy of ‘quality without compromise’ is paying dividends.
Mike Ratcliffe reiterated Warwick’s adherence to excellence, saying that this accolade cemented the winery’s assertion that “we should measure our Cape wines against the toughest international standards”.
Wine Spectator, arguably the world’s leading wine magazine, uses four criteria for choosing their ‘Top 100’. The first three are: quality, volume and price; but it is the fourth, namely the ‘X-factor’, that is interesting to note. Wine Spectator defines the ‘X-factor’ as ‘excitement, the ability to stimulate and surprise - a wine that is different’. It is this enigmatic factor which Warwick finds particularly desirable.
In addition to this accolade, Warwick Trilogy appeared in the ‘Top 100’ Wines of the World in influential American wine and lifestyle magazine, Wine Enthusiast, in 2007, with a score of 95 points, in position number 5 – the highest position ever for any South African wine.
Warwick Trilogy displays a luscious, perfumed nose, which is also earthy and provocative.
The palate abounds with flavours of ripe prunes, raspberry and blackberry, with hints of chocolate, nuts and mocha, and the mouth-feel is silky and soft.
