Badenhorst Family Wines

Adi Badenhorst makes wine the traditional way on Kalmoesfontein.

Winter wedding venue

Posted on November 18, 2019 by quietriotgirl

As November starts to go downhill into December into Jingle Bells and fake snow covered Christmas trees in shop windows – we want to throw it back to a cool August 30th.

Karel and Grethe got married on the farm and we have some pictures of the venue and decor to proof it.

The cellar may be basic, as Adi himself will point out, but it makes for a pretty lovely backdrop to say “I do”.

And then there is the Paardeberg in all its magic hour glory…

For more info on our farm / cellar / old house / vineyards as a venue or (photo shoot) location, check out this page or contact Semma@aabadenhorst.com – she’ll sort you out!

Pics with credit to Liesl le Roux Photography.

Single Vineyards 2018 Release

Posted on October 16, 2019 by quietriotgirl

Our Single Vineyard wines are made and bottled with the express intent to respect the truth of the site. Most of these vineyards are on our farm or other slopes and valleys of the Paardeberg. We’ve been working with some for almost 9 years now and each year these vineyards show a consistansy and uniqueness that we seek out.

As Adi says “these are wines without eye-shadow…”

The one everyone is talking about (well, Tim Atkin named it his red wine discovery of the year in his 2019 South African Report… and described it as ‘delicate, ethereal and graceful’, saying, ‘it’s one of the best Cinsaults I’ve ever tasted.’) is the new kid on the block the Ringmuur Cinsault.

It’s rarer than we like our fillet, sold out from our side and most retailers, make sure to grab it if you see it anywhere.

Others returning to the line up include

– the famous Raaigras “oldest Grenache vineyard in the land” from 12 rows / 1268 vines which yields about 3 tons in a good year.

-Chenin Blancs from Dassiekop, according to Adi the “finest Chenin Blanc vineyard in South Africa”; The Golden Slopes, named after the deep yellow coloured granite in the site; Piet Bok se Steen so called after an old vigneron who lived in a tiny cottage besides the block and Klipkop – a tiny parcel planted on top of a granite outcrop in 1966.

– and just to make things a bit harder for our international agents, wines named Sk’Windjiesvlei (a Tinta Barocca planted in 1962) and Sout van die Aarde (Palomino from the West Coast just north of Dwarskersbos…)

Christian Eedes reported on (and scored) all the wines from the 2018 vintage single vineyards recently. You can read his thoughts and tasting notes here (click click).

You can buy some here.

You can read about the 2019 harvest, here.

Stable image

Posted on August 21, 2019 by quietriotgirl

Finally, some professional pictures of the latest accommodation offering on the farm.

The Stables cottage is secluded behind the cellar. Two shaded outside areas are great for dining and relaxing.

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Soon the veggie garden in the courtyard will be ripe for your picking; Stables-garden-2

the kitchen is fully equipped with modern fittings; Stables-kitchen-1

some herbs and farm fresh eggs and daily baked bread available; Stables-kitchen-4 Stables-lounge-1

the master bedroom has a king size bed with luxurious bedding; Stables-main-bedroom-1

the second bedroom has two twin beds (which can also be set as a king!); Stables-Twin-Bedroom-2

each room has an identical bathroom (plants may differ!) Stables-main-bathroom-1

and in summer there is a perfect little splash pool with lovely views of the valley. The-Stables-pool

for more info, to view the other options for accommodation or to book, click click.

Pictures by Lana Lou.

Another opportunity to visit us!

Posted on August 5, 2019 by quietriotgirl

Our next monthly tasting lunch will take place on 24 August – your chance to see the lush winter landscape of the Swartland and explore all that Kalmoesfontein offers.

The day includes a tour of the cellar, a wine tasting, an introduction to our Agave Spirit, Caperitif and Swaan Cape Tonic as well as a 3 course farm lunch.

We start at 11:30 and it costs R500pp.

This takes place the day before Ayama (just on the south side of the Paardeberg) hosts their annual Artichoke Festival,

and on Friday night we’re playing some vinyls while making some of the famous Kalmoesfontein pizzas in our wood fire oven (2pizzas + a bottle of superlative vintage Secateurs for R300 limited to 30pax)… so why not make a weekend of it and come see what the platteland has to offer.

Unfortunately our accommodation is already fully booked, but to book for Friday or Saturday’s offerings contact Semma@aabadenhorst.com.

Winter wedding vibes

Posted on June 25, 2019 by quietriotgirl

This weekend we hosted a lovely wet winter wedding.

Congratulations to Neil and Nadine, we are so happy that you had such a blast.

The couple got married in front of the cellar, ate and celebrated on the stoep (made cost by curtains and heaters) and danced the night away under the tent covered dance floor.

To find out more about our venue or to enquire about hosting your event n the farm, contact semma@aabadenhorst.com

Single vineyards vintage 2019

Posted on March 7, 2019 by quietriotgirl

A visual representation of when the single vineyards on and around the farm were harvested this year.

Everything came in in the span of 27 days, starting with the cellar block on 31 Jan and ending with the Ramnasgras Cinsault (planted in 1966!) on the 27th of Feb.

The Golden Slopes (since 1968) and Klipkop (1966) Chenin Blanc vineyards are neighbors and were ripe and ready within 24hours of each other.

There was not enough Tinta Barocca (from the mysteriously names Sk’Windjiesvlei) for a SV wine this year so it went into the Family Red.

Other single vineyard wines, from a little further afield, includes:

Geelkapel White Muskadel from a vineyard in the Moutonshoek farm behind Piketberg, planted in 1984 and harvested on 18 January this year.

Sout van die aarde (Salt of the earth) Palomino is a vineyard on the west coast, just north of Dwarskersbos. The vineyard, planted in 1961, is planted in sheer limestone soil and was ready to harvest on 24 January.

And the baby of the Single Vineyards, the Bokveld Pinot Noir planted in 2006 in the Koue Bokkeveld on the Ceres Plateau, was harvested on the 19th of February.

Movie night: a love story

Posted on February 15, 2019 by quietriotgirl

Last night we celebrated Valentines Day with a beautiful outdoor movie screening.

With pink Caperitif welcome drinks, pizza, wine, popcorn and the famous Badenhorst Family Ice Cream paired with a feel good local love story under the stars – it was truly a night to remember.

We plan on doing a few of these throughout the year so be sure not to miss the next one. Send me a mail on aabadenhorstwine@gmail.com to be on our events mailing list.

Hello harvest my old friend…

Posted on February 1, 2019 by quietriotgirl

And then it was February- goodness. We’ve been very busy on the farm; first prepping the cellar and new cold room for harvest, then waiting for grapes and after a rather hectic heatwave everything seemed to come at the same time. The Chenin Blanc anyway.

With Jasper now heading up his own cellar down the dust road Hanneke Botha has stepped up to head the team in the day to day of the cellar. Luckily for her and us Keiji has joined us from Japan for the third year and we have a few more pairs of hard working hands joining the regular crew this season.

In the next few weeks I will try to catch them all for a short interview (somehow between 4:30am starts, staggered lunch times and closing shop at 19:30 they have very little time for social media mangers…)

Here’s a few pics, keep an eye on our Instagram account @aabadenhorst for day to day blow by blow action.

Come stay with us!

Posted on October 25, 2018 by quietriotgirl

We had some professional photographs taken of our newly renovated accommodation options. Cause our iPhone pics just weren’t doing it any justice.

To find out more about these options; click here. And note that if you book directly with Semma we’ll make sure there is a bottle of house wine in the fridge when you arrive…

The Winemakers’ Cottage:

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The Silo:

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Come, visit, stay!

All photos by Jan Ras for Visi.

Grafting

Posted on October 11, 2018 by quietriotgirl

This week we started grafting some shoots.

Grafting or graftage (just sounds like the kind of word that needs to be in italics) is a horticultural technique whereby tissues of plants are joined so as to continue their growth together. We have joined Chenin Blanc, Palomino and Ugni Blanc scions onto an old Red Globe root systems. These grapes will in future be used for brandy wine production…

Ugni Blanc? At first my phone corrected it to Agri Blanc – so I had to read up more.

And no surprise I hadn’t heard of the varietal also known as Trebbiano before; Wikipedia (that wonderful deep well of knowledge) lists synonyms for it as “Albano, Albana secco, Biancone, Blanc Auba, Blanc De Cadillac, Blancoun, Bobiano, Bonebeou, Branquinha, Brocanico, Bubbiano, Buriano, Buzzetto, Cadillac, Cadillate, Castelli, Castelli Romani, Castillone, Chator, Clairette D’Afrique, Clairette De Vence, Clairette Ronde, Engana Rapazes, Espadeiro branco, Falanchina, Greco, Gredelin, Hermitage White, Juni Blan, Lugana, Malvasia Fina, Muscadet Aigre, Padeiro branco, Perugino, Procanico, Procanico Dell Isola D Elba, Procanico Portoferraio, Queue De Renard, Romani, Rossan De Nice, Rossetto, Rossola, Rossula, Roussan, Roussea, Rusciola, Saint Emilion, Saint Emilion Des Charentes, Santoro, Shiraz White, Spoletino, Talia, Trebbianello, Trebbiano, Trebbiano Della Fiamma, Trebbiano Di Cesene, Trebbiano Di Empoli, Trebbiano Di Lucca, Trebbiano Di Tortona, Trebbiano Fiorentino, Trebbiano Toscano, Trebbianone, Tribbiano, Tribbiano Forte, Turbiano, Ugni blanc, Bouan, Beau, Thalia, Trebbiano di Soave, Trebbiano Romagnolo, Trebbiano Gallo and Trebbiano d’Abruzzo.

Trebbiano shares at least three synonyms with the Spanish wine grape Viura including Queue de Renard, Rossan, Ugni blanc and the similarly spelled Gredelín/Gredelin.”

Yup! In short – it is an Italian wine grape, one of the most widely planted grape varieties in the world. It gives good yields, but tends to yield undistinguished wine. Its high acidity makes it important in Cognac productions. En van daar die brannewyn planne.

And so, hopefully, you learn something new every day! Stay tuned for more informative updates, we’re excited to watch this develop.