Jamie Oliver, the naked chef, has declared “absolute war” on suggary drinks for children and SA brandy producers will be hoping he doesn’t include them in his campaigns. For as any whisky wonk will confirm, sweetness is the main complaint sippers of the Scottish stuff level against SA brandy. The 9 vintage blend of potstill spirit from Klipdrift called Gold is among the driest. A point I forgot to make in The Times yesterday when I chose the Gold as my Bottle of the Week. I wonder what number out of 100 the scoring sycophants would award? Shall we say “Jo Schmo 98?” which is the highest score Average Jo MB (Master of Booze) has awarded to date. Brandy distillers, Jo is available to rate your products sighted with scores proportional to sponsorship received.

Bottle of the Week: Klipdrift Gold Brandy

How much? R269

Where? Widely available, cheapest online from www.bottleshop.co.za

Why? You’d think paying the toll at the Huguenot Tunnel to get to Robertson from Cape Town would

at least entitle you to a discount on a bottle of Klipdrift Gold at the distillery in Robertson. But this

stonking blend of 9 different age brandies, the most venerable being a fully legal 21 years old, is over

10% cheaper on the interwebs, with free shipping if you drop over R500. Not hard to do when you

taste the rich fruit flavours in golden velvet jodphurs in the brandy balloon.

 

For this is as good as it gets for multi-vintage blends. But the trip to the home of Klipdrift is still worth

the journey for the excellent gourmet burgers and service from a rainbow nation of brand

ambassadors who provide a new vision for SA spirit a million miles away from oompies in polyester

safari suits with ear and eyebrow topiary to catch a moth.

 

Plus you get a free Klipdrift cocktail (3 year old brandy and ginger beer) as a welcome drink, which

will bust any banting diet wide open. A funky successor to klippies ‘n koke.

 

Just don’t try and take a bottle on an international flight as hand luggage, like Madame Zhao. On a

flight from Beijing to Wenzhou last month, airport security denied boarding to the bottle of brandy in

her hand luggage. So she popped the cork and downed it, according to the South China Morning

Post. Mrs. Z was soon “rolling on the floor at a boarding gate, shouting and screaming, according to a

police officer. ‘She was so drunk… she couldn’t even stand up herself. We took her to a room in a

wheelchair so she could rest.”

 

Rating: ****

*****: Diamond

****: Gold

***: Silver

**: Bronze

*: Pyrite (Fool’s Gold)