DISTILLING
Dying art of creating brandy the old-fashioned way
There is something appealing about creating brandy the old-fashioned way
The winery on Mons Ruber near Oudtshoorn dates back to 1850. "The set-up is similar to the traditional methods," says co-owner and manager Coenraad Meyer. "Much of the landmarks on the farm have disappeared but you could locate where the pot still was by looking at the trees." SA’s early distillers set up close to irrigation furrows for cleaning purposes and near trees for shade. But when production began to expand, it became impossible for one man do to it all. "The farm had about eight pot stills, which was quite a job to keep running because you needed three people per still and they would run it day and night to get through the harvest as quickly as possible," Meyer says. "It was a major exercise." In 1936, his grandfather replaced the eight small stills with a single big one. Customs and excise authorities regularly destroyed old pot-stills and he was happy that he now only had to pay one licence instead of eight. "When we came into the picture, opportunities for retail selling...
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