8 minute read
KEEPING SPIRITS UP
MESSAGES IN BOTTLES
SPIRITS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A PART OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN LIQUOR SCENE, PROBABLY BECAUSE THE DUTCH COLONISERS ENSURE THAT SUPPLIES OF LOCALLY DISTILLED BRANDEWIJN WERE MADE SOON AFTER SETTING FOOT ON SHORE. NOWADAYS THERE’S MORE VARIETY ON OFFER WITH WHISKY ALSO CLAIMING THE LIMELIGHT.
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South Africa’s Roll of Honour is impressive when it comes to brandy. French Cognac commands status for perceived superiority but when tasted blind, side-by-side, in international competitions it is often the South African spirit which wins!
International spirits judge and local brandy imbongi Dr Winnie Bowman says this is because of the richness of flavour which the South African distilled spirit offers. “It’s much richer in flavour and fruit, something the French Cognac producers can’t get on their spirits,” she said.
But in the proverbial man-in-thestreet’s eyes, brandy has become a spirit of parody, something to joke about. “Brannas en Coke” is the staple of many a braai or chisa nyama, north or south. It’s a spirit that cuts across cultural, social and racial boundaries. It’s celebrated in potstilled form with trophies and gold medals from international competition – and it’s part of both initiation rituals and lobola ceremonies.
There’s much to celebrate about South African brandy. In an early edition of CHEERS Cathy Marston wrote: “When the British occupied the Cape from 1806, one of the main exports was ‘Kaapse Smaak’ or ‘Cape taste’, a rough beverage, mainly produced by farmers to help get them through the chilly Cape winters. Standards increased dramatically in 1820 when a local chemist, PH Polemann, published a treatise on the improvement of Cape Brandy with suggestions such as using better quality fruit with high acidity to make it and that the stills should be cleaned and scoured before every use. At the time, every farm had its own still and, if any brandy could be spared, the surplus was shipped to Cape Town for sale and thence to overseas markets such as the UK and Holland.”
Marston wrote that merchants such as Jan van Ryn, James Sedgwick and EK Green “began trading in the city, eventually purchasing land, building distilleries and making the brandy themselves. Business boomed and even the arrival of the vine-destroying pest, phylloxera, in the late 1860’s failed to dampen South Africa’s enthusiasm for the spirit. But World War I brought hardship to farmers, leading to them banding together to create the KWV (Koöperatieve Wijnbouwers Vereniging), which took over brandy production when the 1924 Wine and Spirit Control Act banned private distillation. In the
years following this prohibition, officials travelled around the country destroying the small farm stills by puncturing holes in them or stoppering them up with cement and the culture of ‘Boer Brandy’ virtually died out overnight.”
And as difficult as that might have been at the time, the move to a monopoly by the KWV was actually a good thing in that it ensured the quality and status of South Africa’s brandy.
“By keeping such rigid controls, the KWV was able to enforce strict production rules based on those of Cognac. These included only using grapes to make their spirit, defining different grades and standards of brandy and bringing in international experts to share their knowledge and improve standards.”
As the political barriers came tumbling down in the early 90’s so did the KWV monopoly. Private producers were once again allowed to distil. Early pioneers included Sydney Back of Backsberg, Carel Nel of Boplaas and
Achim von Arnim of Haute Cabrière – and they were followed by many others who had “surprisingly intact” copper stills ...
Anthropologist Dr Anna Trapido looked at the role of brandy in cultural traditions amongst the Xhosa, Zulu and Swazi.
“The use of brandy in the spiritual domain is very exact, serious and dignified and regarded as indispensable at almost all rites of passage,” said Trapido. “It also crosses all provinces and socio-economic divides: affluent, urban Xhosas perform the same rituals, using the same products as their poorer, rural counterparts. In South Africa any brand of brandy may be used, but it is the brandy intambo (loosely translated from isiXhosa as the brandy bottle with the ropes, such as Richelieu and Klipdrift Premium that has lattice raffia as part of the packaging), that is considered essential”. As one source explained: “That one with the ropes represents dignity and respect. You can take other brandies too if you like but brandy intambo must be there. The others are optional”. WHISKY
Wellington is a little Boland town. It’s also the epicentre of South Africa’s growing whisky production. At the entrance to the town is the James Sedgwick distillery which was announced as the world’s most sustainable distillery at the 2020 Icons of Whisky awards.
These awards are usually quite a splashy affair with the global great
and good of the whisky fraternity dressing up in black tie to attend the London ceremony. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the ceremony was cancelled and awards announcements were made on social media. Sedgwick’s master distiller Andy Watts also metaphorically walked off with the title of World Whisky Brand Ambassador of the Year.
How fitting then to look back at a
CHEERS magazine interview with Watts from issue 38 September/October 2018:
The distinctive plaintive cry of an African fish eagle rang out just before the interview began. “That’s the sound of Africa to me,” says Watts. “We’ve got a breeding pair which roost on the distillery property.”
Not how one expects a conversation about South Africa’s first and foremost whisky distillery to go ... but Watts is more than happy to use the fish eagles to demonstrate some of the biggest changes that have taken place at this facility on the fringe of the little Boland town of Wellington.
“There’s been a lot of input and changes over the years,” Watts says and he’s not just talking about the necessary expansion of the production and storage
Craft distillations, award-winning potstill examples and whisky, South Africa’s spirit future is rosy.
facilities as well as the expanded wood maturation programme which was crucial to improving the quality of the final spirit. Distell’s efforts to ramp up the environmental and energy efficient status of the facility is one. Like many wineries around South Africa, the roof contains solar panels, of course, but of late the installation of a carbon dioxide recovery system, a methane boiler which also utilises excess waste product, and a reverse osmosis purification system for the water are significant steps.
Then there are other things the Sedgwick distillery does – like trucking the discarded mash and bran from the initial ferment and brewing of the low beer off to cattle farms for use as feed. “Those spent grains fatten cattle up like nothing else!”
Initially a brandy distillery, the Sedgwick facility added whisky making to its role when Watts returned from an extended stint in Scotland in 1989. Along with a technical team he oversaw the transfer of the whisky operation in Stellenbosch to Wellington over the course of two years. Since the early 1990’s it has been on an upward trajectory, culminating in the recognition of Andy Watts as Master Distiller/Master Blender of the Year: Rest of the World by Whisky magazine’s Icons of Whisky in 2016 – at the same time that Bain’s Cape Mountain whisky was acknowledged as the world’s best grain whisky.
Bain’s Cape Mountain whisky is a product very close to Watt’s heart since it’s a 100% South African grain whisky made from home-grown maize. It’s been lauded as the world’s best grain whisky at the World Whisky Awards in 2013 and again in 2018.
It took 10 years from initial concept to seeing the first spirit bottled in 2009 – but Watts and the distilling team’s faith that this was a product that would be well received has been vindicated. It’s fitting that it takes its name from the renowned engineer, Andrew Geddes Bain, who was a pioneer in building mountain passes – notably the famous one of the same name which crosses the Limietberg mountains outside Wellington. It was the first road to connect the Cape with the South African hinterland when completed in 1853.
It’s a genuine delight for Watts and the team to attend festivals and whisky shows all over the world and not have to explain their product. “The knowledge and the passion that the consuming public have for whisky is just remarkable,” Watts says, recalling the days when the team would have to explain what whisky is, how it was made and aged. “I’m passionate about whisky but this is what I do ... it’s my job. These folks I see at shows have nine to five jobs as accountants or whatever and whisky is just their hobby – but they are so well informed about processes, specific bottlings, distilleries all over the world. It blows me away!”
In Gaelic whisky is called, Uisge Beatha – or the water of life. Is it any wonder that Watts’ passion for whisky and his drive to make the process as sustainable as possible at the local distillery is making the world sit up and take notice?
JACK DANIEL’S AND OLD NO. 7 ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS. ©2020 JACK DANIEL’S TENNESSEE WHISKEY® 43% ALCOHOL BY VOLUME (86 PROOF). DISTILLED AND BOTTLED BY JACK DANIEL DISTILLERY , LYNCHBURG , TENNESSEE. JACKDANIELS .COM
