Badenhorst Family Wines

Adi Badenhorst makes wine the traditional way on Kalmoesfontein.

Book today for the 2013 Cape Winemakers Guild tasting

Posted on August 15, 2013 by quietriotgirl

Here is a little something we thought our Western Cape friends would be interested in.

Next Thursday marks the rare opportunity to taste all the wines produced especially for the 2013 Cape Winemakers Guild Auction, past Auction wines and flagship wines presented informally by the members of the Cape Winemakers Guild at the “tasting of the year”! Click here for a list of all the wines…

When: Thursday 22 August from 18h00-21h00

Where: Cape Town International Convention Center

Tickets: R170pp, to book visit webtickets.

For more information, click here.

While you are on the webtickets page, add a few tickets to the party of the year to your trolley – we have just started to sell tickets to the Swartland Independent Street Party (on November 9th in Riebeek Kasteel) and you should NOT miss that one.

Hope you go say hi to Adi and meet all of the other Cape Winemaker elite next week…

The sky is the limit…

Posted on June 12, 2013 by quietriotgirl

Tickets for this year’s Swartland Revolution are already sold out and we only just announced the first confirmed formal tasting.

This year, the last of our Saturday tastings (the Expert Opinion slot in 2012) will feature:
Vincent Careme (Dom Vincent Careme)
Damien Delecheneau (Dom de la grange tiphaine)
and Benjamin Joliveau (Dom Huet)

Together they will show eight wines (which will be announced in due time).

SR2013 takes place on 8 and 9 November this year. There will be another epic Swartland Independent Street Party so follow @swartlandrev for more details.

Revolution already on the way

Posted on November 14, 2012 by quietriotgirl

Yes, this weekend past was the third annual Swartland Revolution. A weekend of great wines (from France, Germany, Portugal and naturally, the Swartland), fabulous food and lots of Swartland gees. Like one happy revolutionary observed: the right level of geeky/nerd/fun!!

Maree Louw, revolutionary wife, once again took some amazing pictures, and we gladly share them with you here.

Hiiii Eben

The first tasting, Quality First was presented by father and son team, Alain and Maxime Graillot who each showed three of their wines from France.

Adi showing Samuel some tricks of the trade.

Friday night BBQ at Bazaar, by Moerby Kultuur.

Die Baardskeerdersbos Orkes had everyone dancing. “Klein bietjie wyn, klein bietjie wyn” (lies, all lies!)

Adi and Callie in good spirits (especially considering it is 9am on THE Saturday)

Beer and worsrol break between Saturday morning tastings.

Lunch, by “the revolutionary moms” led by Adi’s mom Judy, was a huge success.

The Moms! (take a bow!)

And then there was the Swartland Independent Street Party, with 18 members pouring their wines in Short Street Square.

Including Jasper’s new venture, made on Kalmoesfontein – Muskeljaatkat!

And then it was over. Another great success, with attendees already asking “can I book for next year…”

Um, no, give us a chance to recover, celebrate summer, harvest and then once we’ve started planning, we can talk about another revolution.

Thanks for sharing in the experience!

More pics on Maree’s blog.

#CapeWine2012

Posted on October 1, 2012 by quietriotgirl

Feedback on last week’s Cape Wine event at the Cape Town International Convention Center is looking very positive.

Reading through bloggers and journalists’ accounts of the week in the stormy Cape it seems they had just as much fun as we did.

According to Bizcommunity this year “was the show’s most successful expo to date with producer exhibitors up 15% and visitors reaching a record at just under 1500.”

Says chairman of Wines of South Africa (WOSA), Johann Krige: “Our industry has wowed the international wine community with an exciting and diverse range of quality wines and a fresh and inspiring approach that has demonstrated our world leadership in eco-sustainability and energy-efficiency among wine-producing nations. We showed very effectively that we are making better wines at all price points and that we are making wines, better.”

The Swartland Independent members all had a stall together in the back of the hall. Our funky stand attracted visitors constantly and seemed to be very popular.

“In the Swartland corner, it was exciting and very busy, especially with Adi Badenhorst there to make things happen” – John Ford, read more here.

Emile on Winegoggle simply says “dig the Swartland Grand Funk stand. Mohammed Ali poster and other non-vino artefacts. Cool dudes. I order some chickens from Callie Louw, Porseleinberg. Talk boxing with a chick from the Sandveld, goes by the name of Katrien.”

Rebecca Gibbs reports: “The Swartland has also been turning heads in the past five years and quality of the wines can’t be denied. The Rhone-like blends produced from old bush vines in this Mediterranean climate are original and interesting.”

“It was a jolly good wine show,” says Melvyn Minnaar, “Unlike other crowded wine shows where the ‘commercial’ aspects always seem to linger in the background (‘have you tasted this?, wanna buy some?), and tasters sometimes feel trapped by the expected eyes of the pourer, this show seemed to operate to a different vibe. A friendly fraternity.”

We had lots of fun living it up in the big city of Cape Town for a week. With the farm bakkie in rush hour traffic (once in sunshine with Helena, Eben and American buyer John on the back and once in pouring rain with no windscreen wipers…), dinners at Fork and Dias Tavern (just to keep it diverse) and lots of laughs with old and new friends.

tavern time.

Posted on July 22, 2012 by quietriotgirl

Winslow’s Tavern in Wellfleet USA emailed me recently about getting more of our wines onto their winelist. I told Phillip we could do a little post on them stocking our wines and he went one better and did a post himself!

Not only do they stock our entire range but they also stock the Mullineux’s wines and soon will have Eben Sadie’s Columella and Palladius wines back on the list.

Great support for the Swartland from accross the seas. Thanks for the support.
Read their post and visit them for good Swartland wines if you are ever in Massachusetts.

Are you excited yet!?

Posted on January 10, 2012 by quietriotgirl

Victoria Moore meets the next generation of winemakers at South African wine festival Swartland Revolution and concludes: ‘When it comes to wine, nowhere in South Africa is as exciting as Swartland right now!’

Moore attended the Swartland Revolution in Riebeek in November last year and writes a very nice article for The Telegraph.

Read the whole story here.

Cheers to 2011~

Posted on December 19, 2011 by quietriotgirl

And then we came to the end. Another year, another vintage, another revolution – now mere magical memories.

2011 has been a very blessed year on Kalmoesfontein. We are finally happy with the farm’s transformation from ‘bombed Siberia’ (as Andre describes it) and opened our gates to friends, family and fans for our first open day in October and in November celebrated our first farm wedding on the lawns and porches of the old house.

Adi’s pandemonium of parrots are growing slowly but surely, The Winemaker’s Cottage on the farm now gets rented out so you can come experience Swartland farm living, the second annual Swartland Revolution went down with a bang and our wines received top marks from various international and local critics, including the Wine Advocate (no scandal involved here, we promise).

But for now we look forward to a few days of relaxation on the west coast. We expect the first grapes, some verdelho from the Piketberg area, to be ready for harvest by mid January so there will be no time to waste in the new year. With cellar hands coming all the way from Spain, Chile and India the Paardeberg will definitely enjoy an interesting harvest 2012.

Partyberg’s Proffesional Party Planner, Jasper reports that there will be a Grape Stomping Party (end Feb) and a Harvest Party by the end of March with dates to be confirmed.

We wish you and your family, friends and loved ones a blessed festive season and a very happy new year. We are grateful for your continued support in 2011 and promise to bring you more fine and rare hand crafted wines in 2012.

Cheers to a merry Christmas,

The extended Badenhorst and Kalmoesfontein Family

When we revolted…

Posted on November 23, 2011 by quietriotgirl

Pictures from the 2011 Swartland Revolution. We know we are a tad late, but it took us a while to recover, and then we wanted to wait for the full selection of pictures from ‘neighbour’ (it’s a long bumpy drive to the Porseleinberg, but we still consider Callie & Maree neighbours) and photographer Maree, cause you know, we like to be a little different.

So here is our alternative choices of images from a revolution. If you missed it you missed out!

Oh goody (bag)!

Quality first – Olivier Clape

Revolutionary BBQ (by Reuben Riffel) at Bazaar.

entertainment from Die Baardskeerdersbos Orkes! ‘dis n lekker ou jan…’

Adi’s soap box from where he told many charming lame jokes while moderating the Expert Opinions tasting.

lunch at bar bar black sheep!

Jasper receiving our official Swartland Independent decanter from Eben Sadie just before the street party!

Till next year!

The 2012 Swartland Revolution will take place on 9 & 10 November. Ticket sales will open in March 2012, start saving… Read more here / or follow the revolution on twitter / or like it on the book of faces.

Forests, Harrods and other stories from the North…

Posted on October 31, 2011 by quietriotgirl

Some news from the United Kingdom and Europe.

One of our loyal customers in the UK, Mark Bedford, sent us a picture of him enjoying our Secateurs Red Blend in the forest after foraging for some mushrooms.

He writes:
“Here is the picture of me on a day’s wild forage – leaves, berries, wood pigeon, a few fungi – in a big forest in Oxfordshire, just last Saturday. Your wine went very well with seared wood pigeon breasts gently poached in a hawthorn, sloe and rosehip syrup, all from berries picked an hour earlier. Outstanding tucker and great wine match – though I had to share my bottle with other foragers who had not done the same detailed forward planning since ‘bottle of red wine’ was not in their kit list!”

Proof that our wine even tastes great from a plastic cup:

In other parts of the Northern Hemisphere we are very proud to have our Family Wines and Secateurs on prominent display in Harrods in London and Berlin:

As for us back home, we are excitedly counting down the days (11) till The Swartland Revolution. Bring on 11.11.11!

Swartland saving France

Posted on October 5, 2011 by quietriotgirl

Adi is on his way with Eben and Chris to introduce the French to Swartland wines soon. Between THIS & 2011 Swartland Revolution poster I’m seeing WAY too much skin…

The One-Day-Only invasion on Saturday October 15th will include two events.

First, a FREE tasting with 3 classes:
one to introduce Swartland with Eben’s wines,
one with Chris & Stéphane Ogier (our imported guest at 2010 Revolution)
and one with Adi presenting our wines.

This will take place in a wine cellar in the Latin Quarter of Paris starting at 3pm.

Secondly there will be a wine dinner with a menu to pair with Mullinuex and Badenhorst Wines in a secret location.

Anyone interested in participating can contact Raffi Gabeyan via email at raffi.gabeyan@gmail.com.