{"product_id":"badenhorst-ramnasgras-cinsault-2023","title":"A.A. Badenhorst Ramnasgras Cinsault 2023","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Land\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Swartland reads as hot, dry, and flat from a distance, and the Paardeberg corrects that impression. The mountain is a granite pluton rising out of the wheat country between Malmesbury and Wellington, and the Badenhorst farms climb its slopes from 180 to 330 meters. Ramnasgras is a single 1.6-hectare parcel of old bush vines facing southeast, planted in decomposed granite. Granite here is a specific kind of luck: it drains hard, holds almost no nutrient, and forces vines to root deep, which is what keeps a naturally high-yielding variety like Cinsault honest. The vineyard takes its name from a seasonal ground cover sown between the rows. The vines are trained as bush vines, unstaked, and the farm is worked largely without irrigation, on winter rainfall alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Wine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne hundred percent Cinsault. Whole bunches go into seasoned old wooden vats and ferment on indigenous yeast, pumped over once a day, then pressed off as fermentation finishes. The wine spends 12 months in a large foudre and is bottled straight off its gross lees. It lands at 12 percent alcohol with 4.4 grams per liter total acidity and 1.7 grams residual sugar. Red cherry and raspberry, damp earth, and a peppery edge lead into a light-bodied red with real grip and fine, soft tannins. Serve it cool. The 2023 vintage across the Cape was long and cool with no significant heat waves; the Swartland crop came in about 15 percent smaller than 2022, and grapes reached full ripeness at lower sugars with low pH and high natural acidity. The 12 percent alcohol here is the vintage talking.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe People\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAdi Badenhorst is fourth-generation Cape wine. His grandfather managed Groot Constantia for 46 years, and his father was born on that estate and later farmed at Buitenverwachting and Constantia Uitsig. Adi trained at Elsenburg, worked harvests at Château Angélus, Alain Graillot in the northern Rhône, and Wither Hills in New Zealand, then spent nine years as winemaker at Rustenberg in Stellenbosch and left. In 2007 and 2008 he and his cousin Hein bought Kalmoesfontein, a run-down Paardeberg farm whose cellar had not crushed a grape since the 1930s. Cinsault helped get them there. Long dismissed as a bulk grape, it went unreplanted for decades, which is why old parcels survived here.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFood Pairing\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCinsault at 12 percent alcohol with acidity like this belongs on the table with food that has char and spice but not weight. Lamb sosaties off the grill, cubed and marinated with apricot and curry spice, is the home pairing, and it works because the wine's red fruit meets the apricot head-on. Duck breast with a sour cherry pan sauce echoes the fruit directly. A mushroom and thyme tart picks up the earthy side. Grilled sardines with lemon and olive oil are not a stretch either, since the tannins are soft enough to sit beside oily fish. Chill it twenty minutes and it becomes the red you drink all summer without apologizing for it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Maverick Wine Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51247923757279,"sku":null,"price":68.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/P8220173.jpg?v=1787526007","url":"https:\/\/denverwinemerchant.com\/products\/badenhorst-ramnasgras-cinsault-2023","provider":"Denver Wine Merchant","version":"1.0","type":"link"}