wine info
Badenhorst Family Wines, Swartland, South Africa
We met Adi Badenhorst when he was making great wines at Rustenberg, and we have been shipping bottles from the family-owned vineyards at Kalmoesfontein farm on the Paardeberg for so many years that we still remember the days of bats nesting in the bedrooms and the resident Cape Cobra that lived behind one of the fermentation tanks! The farm is now a wonderful juxtaposition of old and new, with a patchwork of knotted old vines rubbing shoulders with young plantings, the conversion of old stables into holiday cottages and even a rustic chic wedding venue that's graced the covers of Forbes magazine.
One thing that hasn't changed is the cellar, where the most modern piece of equipment is the coffee machine. Winemaking is traditional and with minimal intervention; using concrete fermentation tanks and old oak, often big old barrels which give no wood tannins at all, with the emphasis on highlighting the fantastic fruit and terroir of the farm. Adi’s grizzled appearance rules him out as ‘young gun’ of the South African wine scene, but his energy and talent is still boundless, and the wines consistently dazzling. We give you Adi Badenhorst, the man who says his winemaking technique is "Ach, man, we dump it all in here and it just makes itself"!
Related Wines
-
Badenhorst, Secateurs White, Chenin Blanc, Swartland, 2019 (Screwcap)
“10% goes into old oak barrels, giving volume rather than oak flavour, and the wine gains weight from about seven months on its lees. This is just so...”
-
Badenhorst, Secateurs Red, Swartland, 2019 (Screwcap)
“Over the years this has changed from being a chunky blend based on Syrah to a more graceful one based on Cinsault (backed by Grenache and Shiraz),...”
-
Badenhorst Family White, Kalmoesfontein White Blend, Coastal Region, 2017
“The target is consistent, a densely textured, complex wine, based on fruit from the family vineyards on the Paardeberg: in this vintage 32% Chenin...”
-
Badenhorst Family Red, Swartland, 2017
“Lovely old-fashioned methods: early picked grapes for freshness, whole bunches foot-trodden for low extraction; and then left, post-fermentation, to...”
-
Badenhorst Family Wines, Papegaai, Palomino / Semillon, Western Cape, 2019 (Screwcap)
“By European standards this is a strange blend: the Spanish Palomino grape, known for sherry; with Semillon, best known for dry and late harvest wines...”