2024 `GRENSLOOS` CHENIN BLANC

TRY ME IF YOU LOVE: Unoaked Chardonnay

ABV: 13.5%

GRAPES: 100% Chenin Blanc

TASTING NOTES: Rich, intense, and deeply textured old-vine masterpiece. Explodes with white peach, wild herbs, and honeyed quince. Features a creamy mouthfeel balanced by electric granite acidity and a long, salty-mineral finish.

PAIRS WITH: Seafood like grilled lobster, or fish tacos. Also roast chicken, pan-seared duck breast, big seasonal salads with citrus or goat cheese, roasted squash, asparagus, and rich vegetable dishes.

SERVE ME: Chilled, pop in the fridge for a couple of hours

Neal Martin describes Adi Badenhorst as someone who “epitomises the carefree spirit that pervades the [Swartland] region”, a phrase that still doesn’t do justice to a man whose personality is as characterful as the wines he makes. Founding A.A. Badenhorst Family Wines in the Paardeberg with his cousin Hein in 2008, Adi champions attentive farming and minimal intervention winemaking to convey an authentic expression of the Swartland in his wines.

Adi grew up on a wine farm in Constantia and made his first wine at thirteen. After studying oenology at Elsenberg, he worked harvests at Château Angelus and Alain Graillot, before returning to South Africa. Following nine years as winemaker at the Rustenburg Estate in Stellenbosch, Adi was captivated by a rundown farm on the northern side of the Swartland’s Paardeberg Mountain. “The mountain has texture and slopes. You know those grapes can make interesting wines”, he explains. Today, that old farm forms Kalmoesfontein, where A.A. Badenhorst are based.

"Grensloos" means "borderless" in Afrikaans, reflecting Adi Badenhorst blending several individual sites that were previously bottled separately into a single cream-of-the-crop cuvée.