Love from Winchester

Stone Vine and Sun raves about the Secateurs Chenin 2009:

Here is a terrific wine we haven’t been able to recommend as we would have liked to, as most of our first shipment vanished very fast: we have just had more in from the Cape.  It’s a wine which is ripe and rich enough to make a terrific aperitif, but also has weight and complexity to ensure it can stand up to strong-flavoured food, either fish or fowl.

We always said we would keep an eye on the ebullient, fascinatingly hairy, parrot-breeder Adie Badenhorst, who was the chief winemaker at Rustenberg. He surfaced last year with a decrepit winery and some family-owned land on the Paardeberg. This wine is from dry-farmed old Chenin Blanc vines in Swartland: to us it has a wonderful texture and displays exotic fruit with honey and even marzipan nuances, but here are a couple of press recommendations, the first from the August 2010 report of The Wine Gang, and the second by Jancis Robinson last year.

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AA Badenhorst Secateurs Chenin Blanc 2009

Swartland, South Africa

Dry White (Screwcap), 14.0% abv

Secateurs, made from vines over 40 years old, is Adi Badenhorst's second wine – second in the sense of ranking rather than chronology – and it's both extremely good and good value. It's rich and fleshy with tropical, peachy fruit and nutty richness lifted by vivacious citrus and mineral flavours.

Score:   90/100 

One of this month's Bunch of Five Best Value Wines

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A A Badenhorst, Secateurs Chenin Blanc 2009 Swartland

8 Nov 2009 by JR

RS 2 g/l
A fabulous bargain. Very fresh, floral and honeyed with masses of intensity and flavour (presumably because of the age of the vines) but with a satisfyingly dry finish. VGV. 2009 to 2011.  17/20