A.A. Badenhorst Family Wines | Swartland

If the Swartland revolution had a headquarters, it would be Kalmoesfontein. And if it had a spiritual leader, it would be Adi Badenhorst. To describe Adi as merely a "winemaker" is to miss the point entirely. He is a farmer, a custodian, and the "Chief Parrot" of the Paardeberg. After cutting his teeth at Château Angélus and Rustenberg, Adi (along with his cousin Hein) retreated to a run-down farm on the granite slopes of the Swartland in 2008. They weren't looking for perfection; they were looking for texture.

Life on Kalmoesfontein: The farm itself is a living, breathing ecosystem of organized chaos. It is a place where chickens, donkeys, and dogs roam free among some of the oldest vines in South Africa. The soils here - 500-million-year-old decomposed granite and iron-rich 'koffieklip' - are unforgiving but magical. They force the roots of the ancient bush vines deep into the earth, resulting in wines that don't just taste of fruit; they taste of the land itself.

Adi’s philosophy is deceptively simple: "The better you know your vines, the less work you need to do." There is no recipe here. The winemaking is strictly minimal intervention. Fermentations are spontaneous, often taking place in old concrete tanks or large oak foudres that have seen more vintages than most of us have seen hot dinners. The goal is not to polish the wine, but to capture the raw, honest energy of the Swartland sun.

The Wines

• The Secateurs: Arguably the best value wines in the Southern Hemisphere. The Chenin Blanc is the benchmark for the region—textured, honeyed, and utterly smashable. The Red (a Cinsault-led blend) is the ultimate "Wednesday Night" pour.
• The Family Wines: The "Kalmoesfontein" White and Red are the serious stuff. These are field blends, harvested together and co-fermented to create a snapshot of the farm in a single vintage. They are waxy, savoury, and built to age.
• The Single Vineyards: For the aficionados, there is the 'Raaigras' Grenache which hails from the oldest Grenache vines in South Africa (1952). The name - Afrikaans for Ryegrass - is a cheeky phonetic nod to the world’s most legendary Grenache estate in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and the wine follows suit: pale, ethereal, and deceptively powerful. The ‘Grensloos’ Chenin Blanc, described by Adi as “the cream of the crop”, is sourced from bush vines planted between 1966 and 1978 on decomposed granite. These yield around two tonnes per hectare, resulting in a granitic intensity and layers of beeswax, green apple and wet stone.
• Papegaai, named after the endangered Cape Parrot (Papegaai in Afrikaans), is a passion project for Adi, who donates a portion of sales to their conservation. It is a wine that, like its namesake, is colourful, spirited, and impossible to ignore.

At Hic!, we love these wines because they have a pulse. They are not manufactured; they are grown. Whether you are cracking a bottle of Secateurs or cellaring a Raaigras, you are drinking a piece of history from the most exciting winemaker in Africa.