Wine personality of the day

Adi Badenhorst grew up among the vineyards of Constantia where his grandfather was the farm manager of Groot Constantia for 46 years. His career started early when Jean Daneel, then winemaker at Buitenverwachting, let him make his first wine at thirteen years old.

After completing his studies at Elsenburg, Adi worked a few harvests (as one of the early ‘flying winemakers’) at Chateau Angelus (Bordeaux), Alain Graillot (Northern Rhone) and Wither Hills in New Zealand and did stints at local cellars Simonsig, Steenberg, Groote Post and nine years as winemaker at the esteemed Stellenbosch estate, Rustenberg. In 2008 he packed it all in and bought a 60-hectare neglected old vine farm in the Paardeberg, with his cousin Hein, to produce Badenhorst Family Wines. He is a great ambassador for South Africa and often travelling the world promoting the Swartland.