Premium Brandy: What’s the deal?
Love it or hate it, South African Brandy is a widely misunderstood spirit. Here are a few things you may not have known about the smooth, golden elixir.
Our premium brandy is Cognac at heart
It has global market domination, a sexy French name and the endorsement of bling-bearing gangster-rappers everywhere. Mention the word Cognac, and most wouldn’t hesitate to think premium, expensive and luxury.
What people don’t realise, is that one of our 3 local brandy styles (Potstill Brandy), is in essence, Cognac.
We can’t use the name, nor would we really want to. But both are double distilled from wine in big copper potstills. Both are matured in French oak barrels for a very long time, and both are blended with care and skill to produce the final fine tipple.
Met Eish? YA!
Most dudes love a good brannas en coke by the fire. And while mixing standard or blended brandy with coke (Tip: try ginger ale or Appletiser too) is a local staple, there are also other ways to enjoy the fine spirit.
A pure potstill brandy neat in a brandy snifter (or brandy balloon) or with a cube of ice is different. It’s richer, fruitier, more intense and complex. Smell deep in the glass, savour the full fruit on the nose, the sweet vanilla tongue, and the smooth finish from its years in French oak.
Look out for POTSTILL on the label. They live mostly on the top shelf with the foreign Whiskys and are half the price! Want some hints on where to start? Get going in the brandy tasting room.
SA brandies are the world’s best
They clean up at international awards shows. IWSC, ISC, CMB, you name it. Name any decent wine and spirit awards show, and our brandies have walked away with the bling.
For a little more context, South African potstill brandies have won worldwide best brandy 11 times in the last 14 years.
Locally too, our brandies get the recognition they deserve. Veritas awards 2012 racked up a whopping 7 Double Gold, 7 Gold, 5 Silver and 2 Bronze medals across the brandy board.
Road trip anyone?
Many of our local brandy clan are descended from the uber houses of Distell and KWV, but it doesn’t stop there for brandy production.
Grab your brandy bro, and hit the road. Conveniently dotted over two separate brandy “routes” are over 22 brandy producers with equally good potstills to tantalise the taste buds. Thanks to www.brandyroutes.mobi it’s easy to set out on your own journey of discovery and see what all the fuss is about.
So what are you waiting for?
The next time you fancy a whisky after a posh dinner – or at a poker evening with the lads- give potstill brandy a spin instead. You won’t be disappointed. A whole new world of premium spirit adventures awaits you…
WIN A TASTING!
Win a tutored brandy tasting with Mens Month and Brandy & Ginger for you and 3 of your dudes. We’ll take you through 5 different potstill brandies and compare each with tasting notes along the way.
Write us a comment below sharing your favourite potstill brandy, and why you like it so much. Entrants must be from Cape Town or surrounds.
The tasting will take place on Thursday 22 November (17:30) at 11 Adderley Street, 5th floor. Persons must be 18 years or older.
Source: Alastair Coombe
Visit Alastair’s website: www.brandyandginger.co.za
at 09:30
As a whisky drinker, I’ve only come to discover good brandy over the last few years as an after dinner alternative. If you subscribe to the “don’t mix grain and grape” adage, finishing a wine-accompanied meal with a brandy rather than a single-malt might make the morning headache a bit more bearable. I’d like to think so!
As an excellent early introduction, offering good value, KWV 10 year old is a beautifully complex and smooth sipper. I appreciate the fruit and honey on the nose, although being a whisky drinker I find it slightly sweet.
The Nederburg Solera is to me much drier, but then lacks the fruit and complexity of the KWV.
I haven’t had much experience of tasting brandies, and again as a whisky drinker (and mostly an Islay fan), some of the more subtle complexities are lost on my leather palate.
at 09:32
KWV 15- a beautifully fruity and well balanced brandy, with an extremely smooth finish.
at 10:21
Riana Scheepers. One of the greatest Afrikaans authors to have blown our imaginations with wonderful stories, from children’s books, to columns in our favourite newspapers and magazines. A true blessing to any South African. She gains inspiration from visiting the small town of Paternoster on the West Coast for her stories, as well as managing the picturesque farm of De Compagnie. Even though she was a mentor to many at the Paul Roos Gymnasium academic institution, I unfortunately did not have the privilege to have her hand over me during my teenage years. But what I missed out on there was made up when my mother (a wine expert!) surprised us with an art piece I would not have associated with Riana Scheepers at that time…
De Compagnie – Single Vintage French Oak-Matured Potstill Brandy (Michaelangelo International Award GOLD medal)
From the moment I saw the bottle, a sense of classiness covered the room. The bottle alone makes you want to have it. The dark golden colour makes you just want to light up a candle and pour yourself this atmospheric delicacy in a large Cognac-glass. The experience I had while heating up the brandy with my hands, and the eagerness to indulge in this magnificent piece of art, was something I haven’t experienced before. A lovely fruitful aroma and that of strong spices are very well rounded off with a smooth aftertaste of vanilla and honey…
Delightful!
at 11:38
My favourite potstill – without a doubt – is the Van Ryn 12yr old. I was fortunate enough to be invited to a brandy tasting while still living up in the land of the big smoke (yes, Jhb), but after moving down to Cape Town I just had to go re-acquaint myself with the golden nectar at the Van Ryn distillery.
For anyone who hasn’t visited the distillery yet – it is certainly worth the trip. It is a beautiful, character rich building just outside Stellenbosch and they offer a number of brandy tours.
They even serve you with a brandy + cocktail juice as a welcoming drink – it is surprisingly good!
PS. My surname might be Van Rhyn (with an “h”), but UNFORTUNATELY I have no links to Van Ryn’s brandy
at 12:42
Van Ryns 10yr should not be missed my definate favourite. Van Ryns 12 also good but i’d already fallen for the 10yr. Richeleu 10yr also worth a mention.
Bottles i’d buy on a regular basis are Klipdrift Premium & Fish Eagle. A nice balance between quality, flavour & price.
I personally do not enjoy the Oudemeester grand Reserve.
In the regular Brandy range Olaf Berg is often underated & is on par or better than Richeleu.
at 12:58
The LadiSmith eight-year-old, French oak matured 100% potstill brandy.
Nothing else comes close.
at 03:38
Backsberg makes some really good brandy…… sigh.