Cape Town - There is no doubt gin is trending among discerning drinkers, especially in Cape Town.
We have specialist gin bars and several artisanal gins are produced here. And now we have the first Gin & Tonic Festival coming up at the end of this month.
The first batch of tickets has sold out quickly and a second issue was released this week. As a gin lover it’s something I am looking forward to and I asked the organisers why gin is so in at the moment.
“Gin has come a long way since the dark days of being known as mother’s ruin. The versatility and huge range of taste and flavours have propelled it onto the main stage of clubs and watering holes across the world,” said Pierre Strydom, who also produces Bloedlemoen gin, to be launched at the festival.
“Recently we’ve seen a revived interest in this spirit first made in the Middle Ages. It has become a firm favourite with mixologists at the cutting edge of creating new and exciting concoctions for those with discerning taste.
“But it’s not just gin that has undergone a dramatic revolution; there’s been a big innovation when it comes to mixers with the rise of artisanal tonics made from hyper-local ingredients like rooibos and foraged herbs. It was, therefore, only natural to create a gin and tonic festival to bring many of these incredible old and new favourites together at one event.”
Strydom’s new local brand Bloedlemoen (Blood orange) is, as the name suggests, a gin infused with botanical flavours of the blood orange. “The label was designed by world-renowned local artist Loraine Loots, a thing of beauty in its own right,” said Strydom.
Our local gins are not only varied and divine, but their bottles are gorgeous and possessing a decent range at home makes me happy.
Gins from here and abroad that will be represented at the festival include Beefeater, Gordon’s, No3 London Dry, Hendrick’s, Cruxland, Sipsmith, Wilderer, Jorgensen’s, Botanist, Hope On Hopkins, Musgrave, Triple Three from Blaauwklippen in Stellebosch, Safron, and New Harbour Distillery.
I’ve visited Hope On Hopkins in Woodstock where two ex-lawyers followed their hearts and turned their hands to distilling. They handcraft two of their gins using malted barley from Caledon which is fermented and triple distilled into a neutral spirit – a single malt vodka. This is then distilled a fourth time with a blend of different botanicals to produce two gins: a classic London Dry infused with juniper, rosemary and citrus from the Cederberg; and Salt River Gin which brings South African flavours to the fore with a range of local botanicals including buchu and kapokbos.
For the third gin, a new savoury-style Mediterranean Gin, a grape base is used which is triple distilled and then infused in a fourth distillation with olives, rosemary, thyme and basil.
Jorgensen’s in Wellington is another place I’ve been lucky enough to visit, where Roger Jorgensen distills several gins, as well as other spirits. A pioneer in private distilling, fighting long and hard battles for the first private licences back in 1994 and thus paving the way for others to follow, Jorgensen’s gin is made with spicy juniper harvested in Paarl from South Africa’s only juniper plantation. Earth notes come from angelica root, orris root, calamus root, rare African wild ginger, coriander, liquorice root and bitter apricot kernels. Top notes come from delicate touches of naartjie and Cape lemon peels, buchu, grains of paradise, rose geranium and perfumed ohandua from the Kaokoveld.
In addition to the gins, there will of course be tonics and this is another whole new ball game. Schweppes is no longer the only thing on the market and aficionados are turning towards locally made tonics as well as imported ones, which are more subtle.
Vincent Parisis, Belgian entrepreneur and founder of www.ginsoline.be, will be there sharing his knowledge as well as curated tasters of a few unique gins, and there will be food offerings that can be paired with gin and tonic, or gin cocktails.
The Gin & Tonic Festival takes place on January 30 from 11am till late at Mason’s Press, 7 Ravenscraig Road, Woodstock. Tickets, available through Quicket, cost R120 which gets you entrance plus a special festival balloon glass. Festival-goers will be able to purchase “gin pennies” for tastings and cocktails.
l See http://ginandtonicfestival. co.za.
Weekend Argus