IMAGE: GETTY


Cape Town


Cape Town’s world-famous coastline. Opposite: New Harbour gin lab; New harbour events.


T


here was a time when the only people into gin were my grandma and Snoop Dogg. People would avoid it because the ‘good stuff’ was only found in ultra


swanky bars and the rest of it tasted like a combination of antiperspirant, pot pourri and ethanol. Recently, though, gin has started becoming cool. At the same time as gin was shedding its stuffy associations, a parallel overhaul was starting in Cape Town. A city renowned for the dusty cellars and rolling hills of its iconic wine route was birthing something newer, shinier, louder and drunker — artisanal gin. Surviving a journey through this burgeoning scene with my liver intact is going to be a tricky prospect…


Inner city distillers Stepping into the quaint coffee shop storefront of Te


Woodstock Gin Company, nestled in the creative hub of Woodstock, the first thing I notice is the scent in the air. It’s strangely familiar but it’s definitely not coffee and probably not gin. It’s the warm, malty smell of a brewery, a clue to the unusual aspect of this craft distillery. “Most gin is distilled from a wheat or sugar base, but we


distil our gin from wine and beer,” the company’s founder and distilling fanatic Simon Von Witt explains. Its flagship Inception gins take on very different characters thanks to these bases: the wine-based spirit is smooth and elegant, while its beer-based counterpart is robust and punchy.


While there are plans underway to turn the coffee shop


area into a bar space after hours, to serve the off-the-clock hipster crowd, the distillery does offer gin tastings and even makes its own tonic (gin’s reputation as a depressive has nothing to do with gin and everything to do with all the sugar in poor quality tonic, Simon tells me). My favorite thing though? I get to take a memento home with me: a small bag of ‘tea bags’ containing a mix of indigenous spices to enhance the flavor of your G&T. A few minutes away, on another bustling Woodstock


street with minibus taxis zooming by, distiller Nic Janeke and wife Andri are poster children for gin’s youthful regeneration. Tey’re in their 20s, and everything about the genesis of their New Harbour Distillery screams millennial: the brainchild of a designer and a chemical engineer; merging their passions for art and science; the crowdfunding campaign to get it off the ground; and the storybook success that’s just seen them move into expansive new premises where they offer tastings by appointment, as well as a fortnightly gin blending course. “We started this process three years ago,” Andri tells me,


as we sip New Harbour’s Rooibos (red bush tea) Infused Gin on ice at a long table in the center of their new distillery. I’m not sure if it’s the booze or Andri’s bubbly personality, but I want her to be my new best friend. When she talks me through their two, eight-botanical offerings, the Rooibos and the Spekboom, ▶


ASTAnetwork | Summer 2017 | 81


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