Words: Lucy O’Connell | Images: Shutterstock
You only need to walk into a bottle store to see that South Africa (and the world!) has gone gin mad. What was once a quiet shelf in the corner has exploded into a vast tempting sea of colour and flavour, with proudly South African gins vying for your attention against enticing foreign imports, all with the humble juniper berry at their core.
And with so much to taste and fall in love with, Joburgers are lucky to have a guide in The SA Gin Society – a platform created by Wayne Burrows and his business partner to showcase local and international gin products to local consumers. Wayne sat down with Neighbourhood to chat all things gin.
What is The SA Gin Society all about?
We host gin tastings once a month which are open to the public, and we also host private and corporate tastings. Our tastings are always informal yet informative – we don’t take ourselves too seriously – and we believe that people should have fun with gin. Anyone can join our tastings, whether you consider yourself a connoisseur or whether you’ve never had a gin in your life, everybody’s welcome. We also host the annual SA Gin Festival which is really just a celebration of South African gin and the highlight of our year.
What’s your view on the South African gin scene at the moment?
It’s incredibly exciting! We have a number of distilleries which are producing gins that are winning international awards, and this success has happened in a relatively short period of time. We also have access to a large variety of botanicals which are unique to South Africa – think fynbos for example – and this enables us to produce incredibly interesting gins that are being appreciated and recognised internationally. Couple this with talented and passionate people with true South African entrepreneurship, and you have a recipe for success.
What gins do you think everyone should be trying?
Ginifer gin produced by the ever-inspiring Jacqueline Grobler is truly unique and special. Then there is the Karoo-based Glenn Bryant with his Six Dogs Gin, and Richard and Matt from Ginologist, who are also producing award-winning gins at the moment. There really are too many to mention!
The SA Gin Society
083 628 1796
goo.gl/Xwr3fe
