Badenhorst Secateurs Red Blend 2024

Secateurs is made by cousins Hein and Adi Badenhorst on the family farm in Swartland, South Africa, a warm, dry region of granite and shale soils and old bush vines. The wine is a Rhone-style blend of Syrah, Cinsault and Grenache, farmed with minimal intervention and made to show the region rather than the cellar. Swartland's heat and low-yielding unirrigated vines give ripe, generous fruit, while the granite soils and cooling ocean influence keep enough freshness to balance the alcohol. The grapes are fermented with native yeasts and the wine is aged in older oak, so the wood lends texture and a slow uptake of oxygen without adding obvious vanilla. Syrah drives the blend with dark fruit and pepper, Grenache adds red fruit and warmth, and Cinsault lifts the aromatics and keeps the body supple. The colour is deep ruby, the nose full of blackberry, plum, dried herbs and cracked pepper. The palate is ripe and rounded, medium to full in body with soft tannin and a savoury finish. Serve at 16 to 17 degrees. It suits grilled and roast meats.