AA Badenhorst Family, 'Secateurs' Chenin Blanc

Vineyards and vines: The Chenin Blanc grapes are mostly from our farm, Kalmoesfontein situated on the northern side of the Paardeberg Mountain. Our neighbour also supplies us with some exceptional old vine fruit–making us the world’s smallest co-op! We maintain that high quality fruit comes from old un-irrigated bush vines grown on a variety of granite soils that are naturally low yielding. Most of our Chenin vines were planted the late 1960’s to mid-1970 and tend to yield around 4 tons/hectare.

Grapes: Chenin Blanc, and a tiny bit of Semillon and Grenache Blanc just to add some jazz!

Vinification: The grapes are handpicked with great care and chilled overnight in a cold room. The following day they are whole bunch pressed to a settling tank. These vineyards were picked over a period of 12 days and each day fresh juice was added to the already fermenting tanks–this extended the alcoholic fermentation by about 20 days but was also very important in the complete integration of the wine as all the various vineyards or components were fermented together. Some of the juice is also fermented in older casks and big foudres; around 25% of the total.

Maturation: This wine was left on its gross lees for 7 months before being bottled with occasional lees stirring during this time.

“Chenin Blanc has a lot of structure on its own, but we added just a tiny bit of Semillon and Grenache Blanc to the wine to round it off. The aromas are flinty with honey, orange blossom and white stone fruit notes.” Adi Badenhorst