Vilafonte Wines

Vilafonté is the vision of the three founding partners - Mike Ratcliffe, Zelma Long and Dr. Phil Freese.

Zelma Long is one of America’s best-known winemakers with an enviable international reputation. She began her wine-making career at the Robert Mondavi winery, where she was soon promoted to Chief Winemaker. Zelma now oversees the winemaking and style development of the Vilafonté wines, working with the winemaker Chris de Vries. She is on site during the harvest, through pressing and barrelling, and then again at the blending and bottling stages. Mike Ratcliffe, co-founder of Vilafonté, is a leader in the Cape wine industry, and for many years has been keenly involved in black economic empowerment and land redistribution. Dr Phil Freese is the creator of the Vilafonté vineyard which he calls ‘different by design’. Having spent 13 years as Robert Mondavi’s Vice-President of Wine Growing, he designed and planted the first Opus One vineyards. He also initiated the remote sensing project with NASA which has provided modern technology for vineyard analysis and quality enhancement. Phil works with Vilafonté winegrower Edward Pietersen. This effective wine-growing combination continues to elevate the quality of the Vilafonté fruit to a level commensurate with the production of the world’s finest wines.