Adi's equally at home in the kitchen. Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer (alias son Samuel Sunnyskies and his cousin Jan-Hendrik aka 'Boetie') wolf down liver and potatoes at an old school desk after collecting new-laid eggs and trying to catch 'Speedy' the chicken with a fishing net.
Toddler Ana perches on the counter sucking a lemon wedge: 'Sy is al weer yster,' comments Cornelia, describing her iron-willed daughter's scowling down after waking from a midday nap.
'What wine to pair with these dishes? Well, I drink a lot of sherry these days... !' [Adi's latest project is seven barrels of a fino sherry from Chenin, palomino, and Verdelho.]
Food, like wine, has always been a big part of Adi's life. His mother Judy is a foodie, most recently consulting for the new Casa Labia Cafe in Muizenberg. Her The Old Cape Farmstall Cookbook, named for one of a couple of the popular eateries she started in the Constantia Valley in the 1970s, is on her son's kitchen shelf.
Adi Badenhorst grew up in the Constantia Valley. His father André was born on seventeenth-century Cape Dutch wine estate Groot Constantia, in what is now the Jonkershuis Restaurant; Adi's grandfather, Oom Japie, was the farm manager for many years (he appears in a black-and-white photograph on the wall of the restaurant).
André was instrumental in the valley's modern-day winemaking renaissance. He helped establish new vineyards at historic Buitenverwachting. Adi made his 'first' wine here when he was 13 under the tutelage of then, winemaker, Jean Daneel, a former Guild member. Badenhorst senior also managed the rejuvenation of Constantia Uitsig. He is currently just across the Paardeberg from his son, setting up the new Doran Family Vineyards.
After matriculating at Wynberg Boys' High, where he was head boy, Adi studied at Elsenburg Agricultural College in Stellenbosch. 'I also used to help out at Simonsig, doing mainly night shift work when Johan Malan's assistant winemaker was recovering from an injury.'
He returned to the Constantia Valley to help then Steenberg cellarmaster Nicky Versveld with the Constantia Uitsig wines in 1998, in between working harvests in New Zealand (as Delegates and Wither Hills) and France (Château L'Angelus in Bordeaux).
In 1999 he handled the maiden vintage in West Coast former dairy farm Groote Post’s new cellar, before being snapped up by Simon Barlow, who had been ringing the changes at his family's venerable Stellenbosch wine farm Rustenberg. For the next eight vintages, Adi turned out internationally acclaimed classically styled reds (the Peter Barlow Cabernet Sauvignon and John X Merriman Bordeaux blend); whites (Five Soldiers Chardonnay); and natural sweets (The Last Straw); as well as the broad-spectrum Brampton range.
Besides having built a sophisticated new winery with all the trimmings, Barlow had been replanting and extending his vineyards on both the Simonsberg home farm and his Nooitgedacht property on the Helderberg. Among the new vines were shiraz, eventually followed by some of its southern Rhône counterparts such as mourvèdre, viognier, and Roussanne.
While Rustenberg's shiraz vines were maturing, ever-restless Adi was sent exploring by the equally experimental, boundary-pushing Barlow (who'd de-registered Rustenberg as an estate, allowing him to buy in grapes for the label).
Adi’s sorties took him not only to Paarl, Tulbagh, and Wolseley but into the Swartland, where he found precious pockets of old, often virus-free vines - shiraz, carignan, mouvèdre - on the farms of growers who’d once been part of the old co-operative system. Interesting new wines began to emerge from the Rustenberg cellar and in 2007 Adi's winemaking prowess and pioneering spirit were recognised with an introduction into the Guild.
Swartland eggs benedict with sweet potato rösti with fresh asparagus recipe by Adi Badenhorst paired with AA Badenhorst Family Wines White....
Sweet wine jelly with greek yogurt and stewed rhubarb recipe by Adi Badenhorst....