GIN
TO THE MAX
FLAVOUR
TA S T I N G |
IT WAS A TALE OF TWO TASTINGS: THE FIRST TO SET THE TONE FOR AN ECLECTIC MIX OF LOCALLY AVAILABLE SOUTH AFRICAN CRAFT GIN SAMPLED IN THE SECOND. THE RESULTS WERE – AS EXPECTED – INTERESTING... FIONA MCDONALD REPORTS. TASTING PANEL: HEC TOR MCBE TH, JEAN BUC KHAM, JUSTIN SHAW, SHAYNE DOWLING, DEE GRIFFIN, FI ONA MC DONA LD
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his was the best thing you could have done,” said Jean Buckham of The Gin Box. “Have us start by tasting a range of well-known commercial gins – products that anyone can walk into their local TOPS at SPAR and buy – and then following it with the local craft gins.” And what a fascinating exercise it proved to be! Gin is just exploding in popularity in South Africa – but the experts on the panel advocated a modicum of caution. Gin is a very easy product to make – so a lot of folks are jumping on the
bandwagon of sourcing basic cane spirit and then infusing it with a plethora of botanicals. “But just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should...” said spirit aficionado and regular CHEERS panel taster Hector Mcbeth. Echoing something which Stefan Coetzee of Bloedlemoen said in the article on gin on page 14/15, Cause + Effect barman Justin Shaw concurred. “My prediction for this category is that there is going to be attrition. Some of the chancers are going to fall by the wayside and what will remain are good gins, solid
