Spotted in the latest issue of Fairlady magazine…

I am farm sitting while Adi, Cornelia and the kids spend some time relaxing on the west coast. Some friends from Cape Town came to visit and it is always nice to share this stunning place with new people.

Here it is, the annual happy holidays Badenhorst Family Wines email (reposted as a blog here…) that I know you have all been waiting for…

As the year draws to a close we gathered for our annual extended family end of year lunch. This year, in true Adi style, we were simply told to arrive at 281 Voortrekker Road, Parow at noon-ish last Wednesday.

That makes this blog post a week late, maybe it took me that long to recover from what turned out to be a 12 hour adventure for a few of us, maybe I have not actually stopped partying since. Either way.

We gathered around a table for lunch at The Harlequin. Hein (Adi’s cousin, the dynamic one) and Gerrie (the finance guy who pays us all) came from Constantia, Naomi and Alinda (the wineadmin team) and Andre (Badenhorst Senior) came from the deep Southern suburbs, where the sea is. Helena (the cousin who writes all of this ‘info’) came all the way down Voortrekker Road from Woodstock and Adi, Narina and Jasper (with a cooler box full of wine) came from the Swartland.

The decor might be a tad dodgy, but the food was good and the French Loire wines and bubbly and Argentinian Malbecs from the cooler box made it all a very jolly affair. By desert time Andre even asked the waitress for ‘French Kisses’…

Helena (tweeting?) and Andre.

Narina and Alinda with a big ass vase. I did not lie to you about the decor…

Adi and Hein, the dynamic and good looking cousins.

All together now, fltr Helena, Narina, Jasper, Gerrie, Alinda, Adi, Naomi and Hein with Andre in front.

Cheers to another good year!

These Paardeberg ladies made the Mom’s Lunch at The Swartland Revolution go smoothly. 

They did a lot of carrying, packing, stacking, clearing and cleaning. Thank you ladies!

A few features this week…

From the Secateurs Red being Canadian The National Post’s wine of the day on Monday.

To Anthony Rose at The Independent praising the Swartland and concluding that “it’s through this inspirational combination of wine and soul that Swartland is making waves.”

And an American wine snob deciding that our Curator Red is the perfect every day red wine.

Adi, Jasper and Gerrie went to Argentina to taste wine, only picture I got was of Jasper and Gerrie “tasting olive oil”…

At least when they got back they did some pruning

And sent a few casks off for bottling – Ramnasgras, Raaigras en Gemmerkat. Ana just made sure they were all tied down for the trip!

Meanwhile Jasper has left for London again to show a few wines Villandry

and at home the old chenin vines are looking pretty good amongst the pretty (weed) flowers.

Spotted.

A few of our twitter fans spotted Adi singing the national anthem at the Bok game in Mendoza last weekend.

I also spot Gerrie our Financial Manager (this explains why I have not been paid…) but no Jasper… All I know (while I roadtrip through Spain) is that the guys are there tasting some Malbecs and will be back on Kalmoesfontein on September 2nd.

This might explain why Samuel topping up the Vin de Sonskyn, Fernao Pires 2009…

“South African trailblazer Adi Badenhorst’s Secateurs Red 2011 is my barbecue wine of choice.” says the Telegraph’s Victoria Moore.

We agree, but we would call it a Braai.

Read the article with lots of nice fresh summer drinking ideas here.