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Buy any 12 bottles and save 10% (excludes wines on offer). Free UK delivery on orders over £100. Tel: 02922 337454
Buy any 12 bottles and save 10% (excludes wines on offer). Free UK delivery on orders over £100. Tel: 02922 337454
2025 Secateurs Riviera, AA Badenhorst Family Wines Wine Republic

2025 Secateurs Riviera, AA Badenhorst Family Wines

Swartland, South Africa

Swartland sunshine with a little skin in the game.

This is not your average easy-going white. Riviera is bright, textured and gloriously offbeat, a skin-contact blend that brings sunshine, spice and a little grip to the party. The 2025 opens with grapefruit, quince and warm spice, then shifts into something more savoury and intriguing, with hints of pomelo, olive skin and a gently herbal, sappy edge. The palate is broad but fresh, with that lovely pithy texture that comes from skin contact, balanced by a mouthwatering line of acidity and a fine, refreshing tannic grip. It feels Mediterranean in spirit, sun-drenched yet salty, with plenty of character and just enough wildness to make it utterly compelling. The 2025 blend includes 67% Chenin Blanc, 16% Grenache Blanc, 10% Roussanne and 7% Viognier.

For when: lunch turns into dinner and no one minds in the slightest.
Pairs with: grilled prawns, saffron dishes, roast chicken, spiced vegetables, or salty snacks in serious quantity.
If this wine were a person: tanned, charming, faintly eccentric, and absolutely impossible to forget.

A.A. Badenhorst has become one of the defining names of the Swartland, making wines that celebrate old vineyards, texture and a real sense of place. Riviera comes from a single old Chenin Blanc vineyard planted in 1972 beside a dry riverbed, where sandy decomposed granite soils help give the wine its lift and aromatic clarity. Picked when the fruit has reached full golden ripeness, then made with skin contact and gentle handling, it captures a more savoury, expressive side of Swartland white wine, distinctive, characterful and full of life.

Whats in the bottle
67% Chenin Blanc, 16% Grenache Blanc, 10% Roussanne and 7% Viognier.

£17.95 - £17.95
£17.95
£17.95 - £17.95
£17.95
Availability:
In stock

A.A. Badenhorst Family Wines is one of the names most closely associated with the modern rise of the Swartland, yet its roots feel deeply tied to an older, more instinctive South African wine culture. Based at Kalmoesfontein on the Paardeberg, the estate was founded by Adi Badenhorst and has become known for wines that are full of life, texture and an unmistakable sense of place. The farm is home to old bush vines, many planted in the 1950s and 1960s, spread across varied slopes and rooted in decomposed granite, quartz and iron-rich koffieklip soils, all of which contribute to the fragrance, savoury detail and natural tension that run through the range.

What makes Badenhorst so compelling is the way these wines balance freedom with precision. Farming is hands-on and largely biological in outlook, with unirrigated bush vines and a strong emphasis on preserving the individuality of each parcel. In the cellar, the approach is deliberately unforced, favouring traditional methods and gentle handling over polish for polish’s sake. That philosophy gives the wines their hallmark character, expressive, textural and often slightly wild around the edges, but always anchored by purity and purpose.

From the brilliantly drinkable Secateurs range to the more layered and age-worthy bottlings from Kalmoesfontein itself, A.A. Badenhorst has helped redefine what Swartland can be: not just fashionable, but profound. These are wines that celebrate old vineyards, Mediterranean varieties and the raw beauty of the Cape, all seen through the lens of a grower who trusts both the land and his own instincts.

Riviera is a skin-macerated Chenin Blanc, made using carbonic maceration techniques. After hand-harvesting, the grapes are cooled overnight. Around 60% of the fruit is placed in concrete tanks, partially whole bunch and partially destemmed. Some juice is pressed and poured over the grapes to initiate fermentation. As fermentation progresses, juice is run off into old casks, and more fruit is added to the tank in a continuous fermentation approach. After approximately three weeks, the tank is pressed, capturing the full character of the skins and fruit.