If disasters come in threes, then good news does, too. At least in the case of Adi Badenhorst, eponymous winemaker and proprietor of Badenhorst Family Wines on the Paardeberg.
Winemaker at Cape first-growth producer Rustenberg for eight years, he surfed off to the Swartland late last year and promptly produced two Mediterranean blends, a red and a white. They had foreign fundis frothing at Cape Wine 2008 - the industry biennial haal uit en wys (sniff, swirl and spit) - at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
Arranged by Wines of SA (Wosa, the exporters' mouthpiece), it was a non stop party that kicked off at Kevin Arnold's elegant Waterford spread on the Helderberg on Sunday with a tour de force tasting of the Cape's most exalted cuvées. These were delivered at a Pete Goffe-Wood culinary extravaganza at his Kitchen Cowboy ranch in Salt River.
The day ended in gastronomic heaven Rust en Vrede restaurant, with dashing David Higgs the perfect image of a celebrity chef.
The Badenhorst foreign fan club came through on Saturday at the Cape Winemakers Guild auction, where Badenhorst's 2005 Auction Blend was knocked down at R450/bottle. At the ultimate pre-auction tasting the previous evening, Badenhorst had called it "an arranged marriage that works" of cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot, cabernet franc and malbec.
Auction organisers, exhibiting a well-developed case of cultural cringe, had hired a former Wosa operative in New York to present the auction line-up to America's second-tier of palates, Steve Tanzer and James Molesworth, the latter an employee of US magazine Wine Spectator.
Molesworth is fondly remembered for coining the hilarious spoonerism "Poor Vaarterberg" for the Voor Paardeberg ward from which Badenhorst sources the roussanne and grenache blanc grapes for his fat, rich white. Clearly holding no grudges, the American adepts delivered 90+ ratings on cue, with Badenhorst up among the best. Though I don't quite see why we need foreign affirmation of such homegrown idiosyncrasies as Danie Steytler's Kaapzicht Cape Blend 2006 or Beyers Truter's Beyerskloof Pinotage 2006.
Badenhorst's big day started out in Robertson, at Danie de Wet's elegant estate, which features an exact reproduction of his ancestor's Koopmans de Wet House, now a museum in Strand Street, Cape Town. The occasion was the biennial "Celebration of Chardonnay" and Badenhorst's Rustenberg Five Soldiers 2006 had this taster marvelling at the refined flavours of apricot and overripe orange, which give new meaning to the hackneyed phrase "possessed of great mid palate intensity".
A remarkable achievement, the only thing missing being an employee from Rustenberg to sign up orders from the assembled foreign wine buyers washed in from Cape Wine 2008. Or, at least, to bask in the spotlight of collective praise.
