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SOUTH AFRICA
– SPIRITS –
KWV’s brandy portfolio is showcased at The House of Fire, a
multifaceted venue at the KWV Wine Emporium in Paarl
Oude Molen boasts the largest copper potstill in the Southern Hemisphere,
nicknamed Big Bertha, with a capacity of 23,000 litres
not only producing its own three-year-old VS, five-year-old
VSOP and 10-year-old XO potstill brandies but also owning
the independently operated Ladismith and Joseph Barry
distilleries.
Oude Molen was started by René Santhagens, widely
considered the Father of SA Brandy, a Dutch-born
distiller who first established the Golden Lion Distillery
at Vlottenburg in Stellenbosch in 1903 (today home to
Van Ryn’s) before buying the Oude Molen farm under
Stellenbosch’s Papegaaiberg in 1909. Here he embraced
Cognac methods and produced fine brandy until his death
in 1937, but in 2003 Oude Molen moved to much bigger
and more modern premises in Elgin, where column stills sit
opposite the beautiful copper potstills – including two of
the largest copper potstills in the Southern Hemisphere (Big
Bertha and Long Tom).
Oude Molen master distiller Danie Pretorius is proud to
have received a double gold medal from Gilbert & Gaillard
not only for the ‘elegant and refined’ Oude Molen VSOP,
but also for the XO Royal Cape Brandy that Oude Molen
distils by appointment to the Zulu king as part of a range
of products offered by Bayede! (a majority black-owned,
women-managed company based in Paarl that provides
employment opportunities). ‘The late King Goodwill
Zwelithini wanted a spirit that was bold, textured and
above all distinctive,’ says Pretorius. ‘We submitted a few
samples and the one which was selected really is a standout.
The Bayede! XO Royal Cape Brandy shows a distinctive
hint of cloves and curry leaf on the nose, which I’ve never
encountered in another brandy. The king loved it!’
Now owned by Oude Molen, the Ladismith Distillery
founded in 1851 produces vast amounts of column-distilled
brandy, but once a year a small potstill is fired up to distil
just enough of the highest quality base wine that will
eventually become the ‘classic’ Ladismith 8 Year Old Cape
Brandy rated 90 by Gilbert & Gaillard.
Then there’s the Joseph Barry Distillery in Barrydale, which
owes its name to a liquor tradesman who settled in the
Swellendam area of the Klein Karoo in the 1820s. Frustrated
that overland travel to the Cape was so slow, Barry deployed
a fleet of riverboats to transport goods (including wine and
brandy) along the Breede River. ‘Finely crafted in traditional
Woudberg copper stills, each Cape Brandy in the range is
108 AUTUMN 2021 GILBERT & GAILLARD - THE FRENCH EXPERTS ON WINE