About the Wines:

The vineyards – Mostly old bushvines planted in the 1950’s and 1960’s to Chenin Blanc, Cinsault  and Grenache. The vines are unirrigated and farmed as biologically as possible. The vineyards are planted on north, east, and south facing slopes bringing tremendous variety to the fruit. Fruit from other selected sites within the appellation are also purchased to complete the final blends.

The soils – Three distinct types of granites are found here, namely the Paardeberg-, Lammershoek- and Lemoenfontein-type plus different sub-surface geology including clay, weathered granite and some serious shale.

The winemaking – All fruit, red and white, is whole bunch-handled so no crushing or destemming takes place. The whites are tranferred directly to old casks or into concrete tanks for fermentation and ageing. The red grapes are fermented in concrete tanks and open wooden kuipe. The post fermentation maceration is lengthy – up to 4 months -whereafter the wines are put to cask or 4000L foudres. No additions are done to the grapes other than sulfur before and after fermentation.

Our inspiration – The great old wines of South Africa and the discarded varietals, the bottles of which can be found in the forgotten corners of old cellars before modern methods and fame came along and changed the purity of the wines.

The wines

Two wines are made and bottled under the AA Badenhorst Family range,

the Kalmoesfontein White Blend (Chenin Blanc, Roussanne, Grenache Blanc and Gris, Verdehlo, Colombar, Viognier, Chardonnay, Semillon and 3 others)

and Kalmoesfontein Red Blend (Shiraz, Mourvedre, Grenache and Cinsault) 

We also release four wines under our second tier Secateurs,

A Red Blend (Shiraz, Grenache, Cinsault) a Chenin Blanc and a Rosé

and since 2019 we’ve also made Riviera – a skin macerated/carbonic maceration white (Chenin Blanc 75% and Grenache blanc 25%).

And then we also have a very rare and special Single Vineyard Range:

Sourced from specific, beautiful old vine vineyards – we give you Dassiekop-, Golden Slopes-, Kelder-, Klip Kop- and Piet Bok se Bos Steen (Chenin Blancs); Sout-van-die-aarde Palomino; Sk’windjiesvlei Tinta Barocca; Raaigras Grenache; Ramnasgras and Ringmuur Cinsaults.

Not all of these will make it into the range every year, a vintage has to shine to get bottled as a Single Vineyard Wine.

These wines sell out fast so if you see them, grab them! Find (most of) their fact sheets here.