One of our residents at The Somerset in Somerset West – Mervyn Cole, wrote:

“South Africa has recently been awarded several accolades:

• Cape Town is the World’s Best Tourist Destination,

• a local olive oil has been designated the Best in The World, in an International Competition and

• Van Ryn is now officially the Best Brandy in the World, with its 15-Year-Old; not for the first either, having won with its 12- and 20-Year-Old, in previous years.

Being very fond of good Brandy, Remy Martin XO being my poison of choice in the UK, I thought it would be a good idea to get together a few appreciators of the Amber Nectar and pay the Distillery a visit. Even if they were not Brandy Aficionados, enjoying an outing with alcohol would be adequate to get you in!

So, eight Stout Somerseters were approached and accepted, and on the designated day our Charioteer, Lourens, drove us out of the gates and down to Van Ryn Distillery.

The young man who took us about was fairly new to the distillery, but he did his best to explain the process involved with Brandy making.

Van Ryn brandy is made up of 90% Chenin and 10% Colombard varietals. It takes seven litres of wine to make one litre of brandy and uses the pot-still method.  The first distil is called Low Wine, and has three sections, head, tail, and heart: and Heart is the part used for brandy making. The head is recycled and the tail disposed of.

Today, pre-barrelling, 45 Kilolitre Stainless Steel tanks are used to store the young brandy. When ready, the finished product is stored in French oak for the required number of years.  Van Ryn has its own cooperage employing sixteen people but, these days, they are only used in maintenance of the barrels, which are all bought in from France, at a cost of R50,000, and can take each take 314 lt of brandy.

Neville has spent most of his working life as a cooper and he explained how a barrel is made. Each barrel takes seven hours to make and when finished the cooper plays a tune on the finished work, so everyone knows the job is done.

Finally, the barrels are stored in darkened rooms so the brandy can mature before bottling.

After the tour, it was time for the tasting! Different ages of brandy were paired with different types of chocolate and the subtleties of the combinations were explained. Personally, I just enjoyed the chocolate with the brandy: perhaps I am just not subtle enough to note the distinctions?

It was time for luncheon and we had a good time. We ate at Saggy Stone, Somerset Lakes, and enjoyed their beer as well as an excellent, and, in my case, very garlicky, pizza.”

~ Mervyn Cole