2024 `RAAIGRAS` GRENACHE

TRY ME IF YOU LOVE: Unoaked Chardonnay

ABV: 14.0%

GRAPES: 100% Grenache

TASTING NOTES: A stunningly fragrant, mineral-driven Swartland red bursting with crunchy red pomegranate, wild fynbos, and juicy strawberry flavours framed by grippy, granite-etched tannins.

PAIRS WITH: Grilled lamb or beef, sausages and stews.

SERVE ME: Room temperature.

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.

The ‘Raaigras’ Grenache (cheekily rhyming with Rayas) hails from the oldest planting of Grenache in South Africa, established in 1952. The grapes are destemmed and fermented in conical concrete tanks to preserve the purity of fruit. It is a fragrant, singular expression of this historic site with notes of fynbos, rose petal and crunchy red fruit.