Variation On a Wine Tour: South African Brandy

February 2, 2009 at 2:10 PM | by femmefatale | 1 Comment

Monica Guy is joining us again this week to tell us what more there is to do in South Africa. Enjoy.

Another way to get off the beaten track on the Cape Town wine routes, is to skip the wine farms altogether.

One of the biggest-selling, most award-winning alcoholic drinks you�ve never heard of is South African Brandy. Forty-five million litres of it are sold each year, mostly to South Africans but increasingly to an overseas market.

The French and Spanish producers of brandies like Cognac, Armagnac and Soleras are fuming after South African brandies have been scooping up golds and silvers at competitions including the International Wine & Spirit Competition and the International Spirits Challenge. Sales of the traditional European brandies are dropping, we hear, as hotels, cruise ships and restaurants order in the South African stuff instead � half the price without the pretensions.

Van Ryn is the biggest brandy producer in South Africa and its headquarters are in a little grey ch�teau near Stellenbosch, a short drive from Cape Town (pictured above). As you walk through the door, they greet you with a brandy and peach juice cocktail and a welcome smile. It�s a whole lot more personal than the typical wine farm experience.

As well as hour-long tours on the ins and outs and in-betweens of brandy-making, they offer tastings of their 10 and 12-year old brandies, or 12, 15 and 20-year old brandies (R25 ($2.50) or R75 ($7.50). The latter includes rich coffee and three types of Belgian chocolate designed to complement the brandies (and loosen your purse strings).

It�s certainly a top alternative to the typical wino route and more practical, too--carrying cases of wine back to the States in your suitcase ain�t easy--but a bottle of top-class brandy is both smaller and has a lot more style.

Related Stories:
· Western Cape Brandy Route sites [Brandy Routes]
· South Africa�s Best French Restaurant : Le Quartier Fran�ais [Jaunted]
· South Africa Travel [Jaunted]

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