in the summer time when the harvest is fine!

Just look at these, Chenin Blanc grapes from the 1957 planting - one of the oldest vineyards in the Paardeberg!

This cask (above) is for Cornelia's own consumption. Every year Adi makes a wine especially for his wife.  This year, Chardonnay! (it must be love)

 Above and below, other casks furiously fermenting... 

Jasper and Meike (our German intern) loading the (in)famous Klappomp - unique to Kalmoesfontein and says Adi, "it makes other winemakers nervous"...

for the love of meat and wine

When you think about celebrating Valentine’s Day you probably conjure up pictures of pretty couples eating dinner by candlelight. Maybe you envision tacky window displays of hearts and bouquets of red roses or cuddly toys and boxes of chocolates... 

We head over to Melissa’s Food Shop on Kloof Street and did it a little different this year. Keeping in mind that 2012 is a leap year, we catered for the men and took care of South Africans’ biggest love affairs: braai, wine and humour.

Infamous Afrikaans Rap artist Jack Parow tanned a few lamb chops on the braai, deliciously marinated in his own Parow Braai Sauce. Food from the Karoo meats, available at all Melissa’s Food Shops, is the real deal – no preservatives, no additives, in fact no human interference at all. Just lamb, as nature intended it to be.

Together Adi and Jack were the Hairy Beasts, a theme inspired by the quirky gingerbread person range Melissa's got into store for the month of love. Adi poured guests some of our fine wines, also on sale at Melissa’s (Kloof Street and Stellenbosch stores only) from the entry level ‘value for money’ Secateurs to the ‘spoil your wife’ premium range - the Badenhorst Family Wines. 

Parow Sauce and Secateurs - the love affair of the day!

Kids at Jan v Riebeek High School across the road, screaming for Jack's attention!

be our valentine, yo!

Swing by Melissa’s Food Shop on Kloof Street this Valentine’s Day to see our secret ingredients in action.

Jack Parow & Adi Badenhorst, our Hairy Beasts, will make your hearts pump meat and wine this lovers day. 

Join us for a knee buckling lunch where the braai master Jack will show you how to braai for your bokkie, while Adi will whispers in your ear that a spoonful of sugar will make it all better!

We will light the fire around 11h30, so don’t arrive much later than 12h00, otherwise you might not get ‘n ribbetjie...

RSVP to aabadenhorstwine(@)gmail(dot)com by Friday the 10th of Feb if we can expect to see your face covered in JP braaisous.

Like Jack says: "“Baby, voor ek jou oopmond soen, sê vir my,

kan jy braaibroodjies maak…?”

working weekends

On Saturday our financial manager Gerrie got out of his office chair, put on some shorts and left the aircon behind to come help harvest on Kalmoesfontein. He brought his cute kids to lend another two pairs of hands (we are all for child labour here in the Swartland).

Gerrie with Alexander and Lenae.

Cheer up buddy, one day you can also drink wine! 

The "karookop shiraz" was everywhere.

Jasper sustained some minor injuries, but nothing worth writing home blogging about.

Young Guns

It's true - if you use an old photo of Adi in a current article you can still call him a young gun!

Following up on the article by Matthew Jukes that we shared here on our blog at the end of 2011, here are the pages from December's Decanter magazine.

Are you excited yet!?

Victoria Moore meets the next generation of winemakers at South African wine festival Swartland Revolution and concludes: 'When it comes to wine, nowhere in South Africa is as exciting as Swartland right now!'

Moore attended the Swartland Revolution in Riebeek in November last year and writes a very nice article for The Telegraph. 

Read the whole story here. 

Cheers to 2011~

And then we came to the end. Another year, another vintage, another revolution - now mere magical memories.

2011 has been a very blessed year on Kalmoesfontein. We are finally happy with the farm’s transformation from ‘bombed Siberia’ (as Andre describes it) and opened our gates to friends, family and fans for our first open day in October and in November celebrated our first farm wedding on the lawns and porches of the old house.

Adi’s pandemonium of parrots are growing slowly but surely, The Winemaker’s Cottage on the farm now gets rented out so you can come experience Swartland farm living, the second annual Swartland Revolution went down with a bang and our wines received top marks from various international and local critics, including the Wine Advocate (no scandal involved here, we promise).

But for now we look forward to a few days of relaxation on the west coast. We expect the first grapes, some verdelho from the Piketberg area, to be ready for harvest by mid January so there will be no time to waste in the new year. With cellar hands coming all the way from Spain, Chile and India the Paardeberg will definitely enjoy an interesting harvest 2012.

Partyberg’s Proffesional Party Planner, Jasper reports that there will be a Grape Stomping Party (end Feb) and a Harvest Party by the end of March with dates to be confirmed.

We wish you and your family, friends and loved ones a blessed festive season and a very happy new year. We are grateful for your continued support in 2011 and promise to bring you more fine and rare hand crafted wines in 2012.

Cheers to a merry Christmas,

The extended Badenhorst and Kalmoesfontein Family