Dassie Steen

Shellfish, Spicy food, Lean fish, Mild and soft cheese

Dassiekop is a single vineyard found high on the Paardeberg mountain and was planted on steep terraces in the early 1970’s by the father of my neighbour, Pierre Rossouw, on the farm Uitkyk. Steep terraces and bands of fynbos make this vineyard look as if it was meant to be there.

We only use old 1200L foudres for the fermentation and maturation of 15 months. After this the wine is are racked and bottled.

The vinification is quite straight forward when you are working with fantastic grapes from old vineyards. The total vineyard yields around 0.5 tons/ha. The grapes are pressed and run off into older casks for fermentation and ageing.

AA Badenhorst Family Wines are grown, made and matured on Kalmoesfontein farm in the Swartland appellation of South Africa. 28ha of old bushvines grow in the Siebritskloof part of the Paardeberg mountain. The property is owned by the baie dynamic and good looking cousins Hein and Adi Badenhorst. They are originally from Constantia. Their grandfather was the farm manager of Groot Constantia for 46 years. Their fathers were born there and farmed together in Constantia, during the days when people still ate fresh vegetables and Hanepoot grapes, drank Cinsault and there were a lot less traffic lights and hippies still had a presence. Together these two have restored a neglected cellar on the farm that was last used in the 1930′s to make natural wines in the traditional manner.