Some unusual brandies from South Africa

The big exhibitions are always good places to see the latest innovations in the brandy world and the recent Vinexpo in Hong Kong has been to say the least, an interesting experience…

One such new brandy comes from South Africa. We met the firm by accident one evening after the doors of the exhibition had closed and they explained to us how they made their brandies, which are effectively a by-product from their wines. We went back the next day and tasted their brandy and after the initial shock of sweetness discovered that apart from making wines and brandies they also made honey, which they used to take away the aggressive fiery flavour of the young spirit.

It was a truly interesting experience since during the tasting we also discovered that they were distilling up to about 84 degrees of spirit. We were able to help them here and they will be changing distillation technique in the future and lowering the distillation range to prevent burning the brandy. They have promised to send us some, so watch this space!