Secateurs Chenin Blanc

Try it with roast chicken, or braaied fish stuffed with lemon, chilli and fresh herbs.

The Chenin Blanc grapes are mostly from our farm, Kalmoesfontein situated on the northern side of the Paardeberg Mountain. Our neighbour also supplies us with some exceptional old vine fruit – making us the world’s smallest co-op! We maintain that high quality fruit comes from old un-irrigated bushvines grown on a variety of granite soils that are naturally low yielding. Most of our Chenin vines were planted the late 1960’s to mid-1970 and tend to yield around 4 tons/hectare.

This wine was left on its gross lees for 7 months before being bottled with occasional lees stirring during this time.

The grapes are hand picked with great care and chilled overnight in a cold room. The following day they are whole bunch pressed to a settling tank. These vineyards were picked over a period of 12 days and each day fresh juice was added to the already fermenting tanks – this extended the alcoholic fermentation by about 20 days but was also very important in the complete integration of the wine as all the various vineyards or components were fermented together. Some of the juice is also fermented in older casks and big foudres; around 25% of the total.

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.