Swedish-American wine connoisseur Erica of http://twosisterswinetripping.com recently visited SA for Cape Wine (and more.) She lists Swartland as one of her favourite finds and even snapped a pic of Adi looking formal(ish).

She starts with: “The trip to South Africa was a real eye-opener for me. I had written off the country as a producer of mainly overripe, overextracted, “created” bulk wines. How unprofessional of me to cast such a judgement before visiting! The South African wine industry is moving by leaps and bounds, and there are bottled wines in the somewhat higher price categories (between 10-30 USD is the most interesting range in my opinion) that converted me completely.

Wines from the grouping called The Swartland Independents were my favorite new finds.”

An interesting look at how to move the South African wine industry forward, I would recommend you read the article, by clicking here!

In her previous post she had actually visited us on the farm and gives some nice feedback on the Swartland Independents.

Read it here!

Decanter has named our Secateurs Chenin as one of their Top 50 great-value wines for under £15.

Read all about it on their page. 

Yesterday we had the mobile bottling unit at the cellar and bottled the 2010 Family Red Blend.

We opened the first few bottles mere hours later and I hear Eben Sadie tell Adi “the 2009 was something special, but with this one you have outdone yourself.”

Indeed!

Typical Adi, caught on tape. The ever entertaining Harry made a video with the winecellar crew at the August tasting of the Cape Winemakers Guild Auction.

click here to watch the video CWG 2012 Auction tasting.
Our much talked about AA Badenhorst Family Wines Shatoe Ramnasgras 2011 will be going, going, gone!

I am currently visiting Maike (who worked on Kalmoesfontein this harvest) in Germany and her mom spoiled us with a bottle of her Tesco’s Finest Adi Badenhorst Chenin Blanc.

We thought Adi and Jasper might enjoy some cheesy photos, so these are specially for them…

We both miss the Swartland, and even sent a postcards with “Germany’s most famous varietals” to the entire Kalmoesfontein family last week.

We got a little excited about this year’s auction when we saw this post on Winetimes today.

“A full house of 52 exceptional wines signified by creativity and great diversity of styles in small volumes, will go under the hammer at the 28^th Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Auction at Spier in the Stellenbosch Winelands on Saturday, 6 October.”

We will be there, with our Cinsault (a new varietal at this year’s event) the AA Badenhorst Family Wines Shatoe Ramnasgras 2011 – on offer in the regular 750 ml and a magnum.

Read more here.