Here’s the full tasting note for...

Badenhorst, Secateurs Red, Swartland, 2021

Over the last few vintages this has wine has been based on Cinsault (backed by Grenache and Shiraz). In 2021 it has reverted to being based on Shiraz with Grenache and Cinsault.  It's juicy, perfectly clean and full of fresh brambly fruit. Now-2024

After many years as the chief winemaker at Rustenberg, Adi Badenhorst was ready to take on the challenge of making wines from the family-owned vineyards at Kalmoesfontein farm on the Paardeberg, and bringing back to life an abandoned winery, now fully renovated. What is his secret? Well, he is crafting wines in a very traditional, minimal interventionist manner, using concrete fermentation tanks and old oak, often big old barrels which give no wood tannins at all. Whilst he professes total naivety along the lines of "Ach, man, we dump it all in here and it just makes itself", he is also highly thoughtful. He prefers to leave his reds, post-fermentation, on their skins for 6-12 months - as he believes this delivers smooth tannins, texture and suppleness. He has also moved towards picking earlier, to avoid jamminess and to seek a more perfumed, Rhône-like style.