Thank You Mike Radcliffe / WARWICK ESTATE, Elsenburg 7607 , South Africa

I just stumbled this morning ( Monday, December 1st, 2008 ) here at my home in Virginia on a hand-written letter to me ( dated August 4th, 2005 ) from Mike Radcliffe of WARWICK Estate in South Africa. You may already remember the blog I wrote about receiving a hand-written post card from family member Arya Campbell ( of the LAUREL GLEN, California winery - turns out I received two hand-written post cards from Arya. The other one I had forgotten started off with : " I had a blast in your store with all the photos and autographs. You put on a great party - daily , I think ! " dated June 2006 ) and how much I appreciated it ( them ). Well, the same is true for this letter from Mike. Thank you Mike.

Mike starts out with " warm greetings from South Africa " and thanking me for my " support and enthusiasm " for the VILAFONTE project with Zelma Long and her husband. I have already blogged about Zelma and her visit to our store as well as this project with Mike and her husband and the luncheon at Yannick Cam's restaurant Le Paradou.

Mike ends the letter of his to me with " and we value your commitment ". Well, I value your commitment and efforts as well Mike. You at WARWICK ( P.O. Box 2, Elsenburg, 7607 , South Africa Tel : +27 ( 0 ) 884-4410 Fax : +27 ( 0 ) 21 884-4025 mike@warwickwine.co.za www.warwickwine.co.za ) and with VILAFONTE ( www.vilafonte.com ) make and market some real liquid gems from South Africa. Cheers to you all for that.

But what I want to thank you most for Mike was putting my blog directly onto your web page when it was posted. That's the one about VILAFONTE and about WARWICK indirectly. I wrote it on the weekend here three months ago was it ? I don't remember exactly. I remember stumbling upon the pictures of Zelma on her first visit I believe to our store Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 2008 Tel : 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ). Later I found more information in my guest books about the luncheon, etcetera. This was an important subject to revisit on many accounts and I was happy to dive head-first into this blog. It took me awhile to write, to add pictures and to check to be sure I had everything just as I wanted or as close to that as possible. I was proud of this blog and it's contents. It was one of my first and more ambitious blogs and that made me feel good as I was just starting down this long road to wine-blogging.

It gave me a boost to my ego and to myself that someone such as you Mike would embrace it quite so quickly and place it on your web page and let it speak for itself in it's entirety - good or bad. For me just starting to think that you had enough faith in me to put it right on the front page of your web page was a big thing for me and I appreciate it. I was thrilled to arrive the next day ( Tuesday ) at Cleveland Park and discover your email awaiting me with the news that you had just discovered my blog over the weekend! I had not even yet had a chance to tell you about it. So, for that I thank you and share my pleasure at all this now after three or four months have passed by. Sorry that it has taken me so long.

Good luck to you. I will talk to my rep Chris Pigott of Country Vintners tomorrow and order some of both WARWICK ESTATE and VILAFONTE wines for our shelves which are looking a little bare after a busy Thanksgiving week of wine sales.

Cheers and Happy Holidays to you and your family this 2008 end/2009 beginning. I look forward to your next visit and to your next in-store wine-tasting. I will add the pictures soon here from your last in-store tasting. They came out pretty well. You looked the master in them, smiling a lot as you poured and waxed poetic over your Pinotage and Three Cape Ladies wines as well as your Sauvignon Blanc, etcetera.

I, by the way will be going to South Africa for the first time this April 2009 with John and Theresa Morrison and can hardly wait! Take care, TONY