AA Badenhorst Family White Blend 2021

Small parcels of selected fruit is sourced from various vineyards on the Badenhorst farm called Kalmoesfontein located in the Swartland area and the greater Paardeberg mountains.  This wine is made up of a fantastic blend of Chenin Blanc;  Roussanne; Marsanne; Grenache Blanc; Viognier; Verdehlo; Colombard; GrenacheGris; Clairette Blanche and Palomino.

The vinification is quite straight forward when you are working with fantastic grapes from old vineyards – wholebunch pressing of cool grapes, this juice is then transferred to very old casks for fermentation and maturation.  Some varieties are blended at a very early stage or even co-fermented for early integration.  A small percentage of the grapes are picked a bit earlier for some acidity but the rest are picked at what Adi reckons is a good ripeness and flavour.

Chenin Blanc is best suited to be the heart of the blend and that is why it forms the biggest portion of the blend. The aromas are very complex and change considerably in the glass. Perfume, spice, tea, stone fruit and citrus blossoms are some of the notes that can be detected. In the mouth the texture and ripeness and gentle tannins result in a wine that has incredible length and complex flavour profile.  The wine also has wonderful fruit volume characterised by stone fruit and mineral flavours. The finish is long and has slight phenolic edges supporting the fruit through the entire length of the wine.