in the vineyard : Why the Secateurs - shape our bushvines during the winter pruning and are used to pick the ripe grapes in summer. Our family has, for the last three generations, nurtured our vines so that they can produce fruit of integrity. The first Secateurs Chenin Blanc bottled under the Badenhorst Family Wines range was in 2009 and was the start of a life long affair with this most wonderful grape. The 2011 spent time on its lees in concrete tanks and this important part of the maturation of the wine shows in the incredible texture and palate weight of this wine.
Vineyards and vines: The Chenin Blanc grapes are mostly from our farm, Kalmoesfontein situated on the northern side of the Paardeberg mountain. Our neighbour also supplies us with some exceptional old vine fruit - making us the worlds smallest co-op! We maintain that high quality fruit comes from old un-irrigated bushvines grown on a variety of granite soils that are naturally low yielding. Most of our Chenin vines were planted the 1960's and tend to yield around 4 tons/hectare.
in the cellar : The following day they are whole bunch pressed to a settling tank. These vineyards were picked over a period of 12 days and each day fresh juice was added to the already fermenting tanks - this extended the alcoholic fermentation by about 20 days but was also very important in the complete integration of the wine as all the various vineyards or components were fermented together. Some of the juice is also fermented in older French oak casks.
Maturation: This wine was left on its gross lees for 7 months before being bottled with occasional lees stirring during this time.