Badenhorst Family Wines Caperitif 750ml

$62.99 $60.99 price per bottle

Review It is always a pleasure to visit the irascible Adi Badenhorst at Kalmoesfontein, his farm in Swartland. Badenhorst was a pivotal figure in the Swartland Revolution and remains one of its most familiar (hirsute) faces. With his manner so relaxed he might as well be lying down, not to mention what sometimes feels like an “anything goes” approach to winemaking, he is easy to underestimate but there is a sharp brain at work here and a talented winemaker. His joie-de-vivre is matched by business acumen that enabled him to transform and expand his winery. - From Some Great Reward: South Africa (Aug 2018) by Neal Martin
Wine maker notes From the cellar of Kalmoesfontein and the mountain slopes of the Paardeberg we bring you Caperitif. Chenin Blanc fortified with spirit, gently sweetened by the sugar of the grapes, bittered by Quinchona bark and flavored with some 35 truly Cape ingredients such as fynbos, kalmoes and naartjies. Geography is an important but often forgotten ingredient. With South Africa’s good soil and ideal climate comes diverse flora and fauna. The Cape floral Kingdom, growing along a coastal stretch of about 150 miles, is the smallest and richest of the 6 floral kingdoms of the world and has the highest amount of diversity and endemic plants found anywhere on the planet. Many of these plants don’t occur anywhere else and copious amounts of them have unique flavours and intriguing aromas. We South Africans call this “Fynbos”. And it plays a big part in our vermouth, forming the base and the unique “Cape” flavor. For decades this unique Aperitif inspired barmen all over the world. Then, around 1910, the company that made it disappeared, and with it the product as well as the recipe. Fast forward almost a 100 years to when a Danish mixologist met a Swartland winemaker and the ghost ingredient became first a possibility and then a reality. Now we are experimenting with age old recipes and creating brand new concoctions. With the return of this proudly South African product we want to put Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban on the world map as new cocktail destinations. With the recreation of the golden ghost and the potential to educate people out of poverty and into jobs as New South African bartenders, the future is alive with possibilities.
Producer AA Badenhorst Family Wines are grown, made and matured on Kalmoesfontein farm in the Swartland appellation of South Africa. The 28ha of old bushvines grow in the Siebritskloof part of the Paardeberg mountain. The property is owned by the dynamic and good looking cousins Hein and Adi Badenhorst. They are originally from Constantia. Their grandfather was the farm manager of Groot Constantia for 46 years. Their fathers were born there and farmed together in Constantia, during the days when people still ate fresh vegetables and Hanepoot grapes, drank Cinsault and there were a lot less traffic lights and hippies still had a presence. Together these two have restored a neglected cellar on the farm that was last used in the 1930’s to make natural wines in the traditional manner.