Food helps give Brandy a vital and stylish lift
Brandy has a bad reputation but expert Winifred Bowman is helping to change its image, writes Lesley Stones
Brandy has a problem in SA. It isn’t the taste, it’s the image. A former brand ambassador says the spirit is saddled with a "sink a bottle, then start a fight" association with heavy drinkers prone to domestic violence. Not surprisingly, some brandy producers are eyeing the meteoric revival of gin with enormous envy. Gin, known as "mother’s ruin" a few decades ago, is now a glamorous tipple with dedicated gin palaces and websites extolling the hundreds of artisanal versions. Brandy expert Winifred Bowman isn’t convinced about the gin palaces. "They’re in Cape Town and Capetonians are so fickle they’ll be gone in a few months," she says dismissively. Yet the elevation from down market to upper crust achieved by gin and craft beer is eluding brandy. The problem isn’t the quality, because South African brandies are undoubtedly the best in the world, winning more than 40 medals globally in 2016. At the International Wine and Spirits Competition, Van Ryn’s 12-year-old Distiller’s Reserve...
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