Pendock Prefers us...

Neil Pendock attended a blind tasting of 39 of the lots that will be on offer at the Cape Winemakers Guild Auction on October 2nd. And he placed the AA Badenhorst Family Wines Kalmoesfontein Noble Late Harvest Volume 2 2008 in FIRST place, numero Uno... a-wina-wena...


Read the article here, and see who came in places 2 through 10.

Cold nights with good wine

Cornelia received this mail from a close friend who farms outside Darling. She fought the cold on a winter's night with a bottle of our AA Badenhorst Family Wine White Blend and a knit by our Grandma. Ouma Joey's 'tube scarves' have proven to be very popular this winter...

Under the Influence of the Swartland

If you live in Cape Town or surroundings, be sure to book NOW for the Under the Influence of the Swartland wine tasting at the Roundhouse Restaurant in Camps Bay on September 22nd.


Brought to you by Under the Influence - this tasting promises to show you that the Swartland is producing some of South Africa’s most exciting wines, with its old bush vines expressing a lot of intensity of fruit. 


Producers such as Scali, Lammershoek, Spice Route and Sequillo will be explored alongside our very own wines. This is not a tasting to be missed!


The first ten bookings will even be Chauffeur driven to and from the tasting in luxurious Lexus vehicles at no charge...


Date:    Wednesday 22nd September
Time:   Starting at 6:30pm for 7pm
Venue: The Roundhouse Restaurant, Kloof Rd, Camps Bay
Cost:    R100 per Guest (includes wine and a light snack)



See here for more details

Trying the Vin Jaune.

Pendock puts Adi and Dutch singer Stef Bos in pole position at the Cape Winemakers Guild Showcase. He also enjoyed Adi’s Vin Jaune, made Solera style from four consecutive vintages in old Sherry barrels.

Adi and Stef at the CWG Showcase

Read more here...

Adi fighting for the US market...

Adi returned from America on Wednesday, but here is a very nice article by American wine writer James Molesworth on Wine Spectator


I have decided to post the whole article here, since you need to be a subscriber to the site to read it all, and it is a nice insight into South African wines making name and getting a foot in the door of the US market. (And because he says some lovely things about Adi - and no, I am not refering to the wooly bear comment...)


Enjoy...

A Sit-Down with South Africa's Adi Badenhorst

Making wine in Swartland, the Cape's winemaking frontier

Posted: Jul 27, 2010 3:01pm ET

There are plenty of rock-star winemakers—cool guys and girls with cultivated hipster images making cool wines. And then there’s Adi Badenhorst, of South Africa's A.A. Badenhorst family, who sat down with me here in my office today.

There’s nothing cultivated about his image: He’s a wooly bear, with a pony tail that looks like it’s been wrestled into submission, pork-chop sideburns and a former rugby player’s body. Talkative, loud, engaging and fully immersed in making wine, Badenhorst is currently carving out his own little corner of the Swartland in South Africa, working on the northern side of the Voor-Paardeberg ward, neighboring his good friend and fellow winemaker, Eben Sadie.

I first met Badenhorst, now 37, when he was working at the prominent Rustenberg winery, though he eventually left that cushy gig to start his own project, buying a 60-hectare, run down farm that caught his eye for its old bush vines, a motley collection of everything from Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault to Colombard, Fernão Pires, Verdelho, Palomino and Muscat.

“The place was pretty beaten up when we bought it in 2007,” said Badenhorst. “So it will take a while to get it back into shape. Stuff like Palomino and Muscat are there from when the older workers would graft vines here and there—good eating grapes for when they were out in the vineyards.”

“But the Grenache is the oldest planted in the Swartland, from 1951, and I’m buying in a little Chenin Blanc from 30- to 45-year-old vines too. There’s some great stuff here. We’re keeping everything but the Cabernet. We’ll add more Chenin, as well as Grenache Gris, Roussanne and Carignane,” he said.

After starting his own label, it took a while for Badenhorst to get his wines into the marketplace (I reviewed the debut releases, which didn’t make it here). It’s a part of the business side of things that Badenhorst expected, though still overwhelms him a bit.

“You can’t get out and do anything else,” said the fishing fan, half-exasperated, of the demands of running a small family estate (he runs it along with his wife, Cornelia). “You can’t get away. It’s not just making wines. There’s all the admin stuff, and paperwork and shipping and this and that. You have to do it to understand how much there is of it. Thank god Cornelia is there to yell at me once a day and get me going,” he added in his usual self-deprecating style.

As consuming as it might be, he’s hardly worn down by it. With a suntanned face, Badenhorst veers from wine to soccer back to wine to politics to rugby and back to wine again in his totally uninhibited, freewheeling style. His wines are an extension of himself in every way—the top red a blend of Shiraz, Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Grenache (the ’07 vintage will be available in the U.S. market, slated for a September release), the ’08 white an even more eclectic mix of Chenin Blanc, Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Verdelho and Chardonnay. Both are set to retail in the $35 to $40 range, a daunting task to Badenhorst, who admittedly doesn’t carry a lot of name recognition here, despite his popular status back home.

“Man, how are you going to get someone to pay $40 for a South African white that’s a blend of all that?” he asked incredulously. “Your three-tier system really gets in the way. I’m going to really need a guy in the shop who’s switched on to South Africa, and is passionate about the stuff to really push it for me.”

Badenhorst also has a second label, Secateurs, which will retail for $15. The red is a blend of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, Mourvèdre, Grenache and Carignane, the white made from only Chenin Blanc. The wines are traditionally made: Reds are not destemmed (the red varieties for the Secateurs are even cofermented) and fermented in either old oak casks or cement vats. Badenhorst aims for lower alcohols as well, rather than a fuller-blown profile. (As usual, formal reviews of the newest releases, based on official, blind tastings, will appear in the near future.)

“You give up a little bit of that sweet fruit profile, which I do like in some wines,” said Badenhorst. “But I prefer a little rough edge around my wines. I’ll never be accused of making the most perfect wines,” he said with a laugh.

The Swartland has become South Africa’s wine frontier, drawing a small, but growing cadre of young winemakers looking to make wine outside of the standard Cabernet Sauvignon or straight Syrah bottlings from the more prominent and established Stellenbosch and Paarl regions. Along with Sadie, Chris and Andrea Mullineux are also forging a path there, with their Mullineux label. Badenhorst, who spent time abroad at St.-Emilion’s Château Angélus, the Rhône’s Alain Graillot and elsewhere, fits right in with the rogue mix of personalities in the area. 

Here’s hoping that 1,000-watt personality helps open doors for him here, because the wines are worth it.

welcome home!

Farm fresh...

The Badenhorst Family will be at the Farmer's Market at Windmeul Winery this Saturday, August the 7th.


Come meet Adi, have a chat, taste the wines. Cornelia is organising a puppet show in aid of young Samuel's school. The 'production' is on show at 10am and again at 11.30 and stars local drama students.

This is the real deal farmers' market with the freshest produce on offer (remember your coolbox!). Not your average flea market set-up, the focus is mainly on organic produce straight from the farms. 


The produce on offer on the day includes organic vegetables, vegetables, fruit, beef, lamb & mutton, chicken, pork, freshly baked bread, droëwors & biltong, cheese, biscuits and cakes, free-range eggs, jams and preserves, olives and olive oil, grapeseed oil, braai-wood. 


Bring the kids for a real farm style treat. 


The market is open from 8am to 1pm.


For more details and directions go to the website.