Cape Town - At 10am on a Friday, my sister and I strolled into the ivy-framed courtyard of Van Ryn's Distillery. As we tugged open the door, scents like a sherry bodega’s went to our heads – vapours of fruit, sugar, vanilla and wine. In moments, we were handed a welcome drink of brandy blended with apricot and peach juice. We clinked glasses: Good morning, South Africa!
In the centre of the room, a massive copper vessel gleamed. I’d never seen anything like its shape – a Russian onion dome topped with a swan’s neck. Liquid streamed through a chute near the bottom. The heavenly smell seemed to be coming from there.
This was a lambic cognac pot still, tour guide Kim Heynes told us with an eager smile. She would teach us how brandy is made.
The sloping countryside an hour from Cape Town is famous for wine. But a more unique way to experience these winelands, as I discovered that Friday, is in search of great pot still brandies. So my sister and I styled ourselves a tour of what the South African Brandy Association calls the Brandy Homes in the Cape Winelands. We grew to appreciate the process, history and flavours of this wine-based, cognac-style spirit along the way.
In South Africa, brandy is among the most popular liquors. So there’s no better or more beautiful a place to cultivate a liking for it. The Cape Floral Kingdom at Africa’s southern tip is home to some of the greatest plant biodiversity in the world. That makes the drive between distilleries lovely – and the brandy extra-flavourful, its makers swear.
“It’s all French techniques, but we have the advantages of the South African soil and terroir,” artisan distiller Roger Jorgensen told me.
“And we’re not as hidebound by tradition.”
The name brandy comes from brandewijn, Dutch for “burnt wine”. It was so associated with Dutch-descended Afrikaners that many black intellectuals boycotted it during apartheid. Democracy arrived in 1994, and 20 years later, the old associations are being chipped away. The South African Brandy Foundation markets the spirit to be sipped alone or with Coke at braais, everywhere from beaches to townships.
Establishing the Western Cape Brandy Route has been part of expanding the spirit’s appeal. We started at the 150-year-old Van Ryn’s (now owned by South African beverage giant Distell). As the day went on, we floated among organic, small-batch and vineyard-based distilleries around the wine capital of Stellenbosch and the nearby village of Wellington.
To start, Kim walked us closer to the lambic cognac pot still at Van Ryn’s. Base wine is twice heated through the steam-driven pot still, she explained. Workers monitor the process, separating the emerging liquid into thirds – “head” and “tail” portions to be discarded and “hearts” to be kept for the brandy. The kept product is aged in oak barrels for at least three years and sometimes upwards of two decades.
Kim led us into a handsome lounge ringed by barrels, bottles and trophies. She seated us on a tufted leather sofa beneath an iron chandelier, then handed us glasses to warm in our palms.
“Normally we don’t swirl our brandy like we do our wine,” she instructed, “or the flavours and aromas will be lost and you’ll be left with the alcohol taste.”
We spent the next half-an-hour pairing aged brandies and chocolates infused with orange or cappuccino flavours.
The day was beginning decadently. We drove further afield towards Wellington, through countryside where pines, palms and white birches all thrived.
Thirty minutes later we arrived at Jorgensen’s Distillery, an operation so small-batch it was set up in an antique shed.
“How on earth did you find me?” Roger Jorgensen called out cheerfully as we pulled in.
But this leading artisanal brandymaker was being modest. The apartheid government had also restricted business, and individual distilling was banned. When democracy arrived, Roger was among the first to apply for a distilling licence.
He started building pot stills and advising others on the process.
Today he produces 2 400 bottles a year, monitoring for the heads, hearts and tails himself.
For our tasting, Roger took us into his farmhouse kitchen, where a bowl of fruit sat at the centre and copper pots shone all around. He poured us an amber-coloured sample of his 15-year-old brandy, which he calls Savignac. It tasted smooth, with butterscotch hints, but left a little burn on the lips. I started to understand why South Africa’s coffee-table book on brandy was called “Fire Water”.
Roger next pointed us in the direction of Upland Organic Estate, a winery and distillery so rural that the instructions included “turn right at the farm sign with two birds”. There, Edmund Oettle and his German shepherd came through a barn door, ready to show us around the earthy vineyard.
His copper pot still was surrounded by brick. Although it didn’t look as pretty, he explained, the insulation did save on energy.
We perched on stools, with chickens clucking by, to try organic blends from the farm. They were strong, but with peach and almond notes I loved. Oettle said they would not cause the same pain that cheap brandies are infamous for. “No pesticides, no herbicides, no sulfites,” he said, shaking a finger. “You’ll feel a whole pile better in the morning.”
Closer to the highway and back towards Stellenbosch, the ultra-modern Tokara winery was our final brandy stop. We pulled up to a sleek industrial building looking out over vineyards and an olive grove. The interior space was just as striking. Sculptures, track lighting and soaring ceilings complemented the wineland views.
Tokara started distilling brandy in 2009, producing 1 300 elegantly packaged bottles annually and planning to ramp up production. Tasting guide Anuschka Hector and bottling manager Neil Jaap described the one batch a year technique.
It was somewhere between the long-refined process of Van Ryn’s and the fresh, artisanal approach of Jorgensen’s Distillery and Upland.
Then they gave us a pour. While I couldn’t pick up any promised “jasmine flavours”, I did detect fig and peach. Was it just my long touring day, or did Tokara’s 5-year vintage taste as good as 10- or 12-year varieties elsewhere? Either way, South African brandy was going down smoother than ever. – The Washington Post
IF YOU GO:
Brandy Homes in the Cape Winelands
This route includes 13 distilleries over a 95km stretch from Grabouw to Wellington. Many tours are free, others charge admission ,which includes tastings, of up to $5 (about R56). Reservations are advisable. Some tours are by appointment only. All the distilleries are open year-round.
For maps and visiting details on the Brandy Homes in the Cape Winelands, visit the South African Brandy Foundation website at www.sabrandy.co.za.
Jorgensen’s Distillery
Regent Street, Wellington, 7654
www.jd7.co.za Free, year-round tours by appointment.