Hidden Spirit Gems from the Oldest of the New World

With bans on selling alcohol South Africa only just lifted, we asked our friend Tobias Gorn to write something in support of a fascinating, unique industry and shine a light on one of the most exciting spirits brands coming out of the country today: Copper Republic.

The oldest of the New World wine and spirit producing countries; the Mediterranean of the southern hemisphere with great subtropical areas, beautiful landscapes and stunning flora and fauna; a rich history and culture and over 300 year old Dutch colonial farmhouses; vineyards older than some modern European countries. As you’ve probably guessed by now, I am indeed talking about South Africa and one of its finest parts: the Cape. South African wine has a rich and long history as the oldest of the ‘New World’ winemaking regions, but few people know about the fantastically rich history and diversity of its spirits.

The Spirit of South Africa

Right now, you can find world class whiskies, some unique brandies and wonderful gins; the latter with their local fynbos typicity. I am very lucky to be invited regularly to judge and consult in South Africa, as it is one of my favourite wine and spirit countries. The landscape is breathtaking and the wineries and distilleries have often retained their historic Dutch farmhouses and great gardens. On top of that, every winery and distillery has a nice restaurant and is usually set among wonderful countryside. The service is good and the people are very polite, friendly, and great fun too. It’s one of my favourite holiday destinations, with so much to see, from the Table Mountain to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden and the wineries of Constantia. A detour to Boulders Beach to see the penguins, popping down to the Cape of Good Hope and the Cape Point Lighthouse and a visit to the World of Birds Wildlife Sanctuary in Hout Bay on the way back to Cape Town is a wonderful journey with many unforgettable things to see.

Unfortunately the recent pandemic and some questionable political decisions by their leaders made the local drinks industry suffer as a result of consecutive bans on selling alcoholic drinks. But instead of moody political comments, it’s time to write about this amazing country, to show support and raise greater awareness of its wonderful spirits.

South African Brandy

‘Hold my glass, Monsieur Cognac…’

Brandy is perhaps the longest produced spirit locally, given that they’ve had wines since the early settlers of the 17th century. The records show that the first wines were dated 1659 and so, not unexpectedly, brandy distillation began soon after. The stills are a bit different but still similar to other big and famous brandy producing regions and the diversity of styles is great. It is hard to define a singular style but from what we tasted, South African brandy is usually a smooth, fresh and floral, zesty and aromatic spirit, different from the over-caramelised examples of some other European counterparts. Often underrated, South African brandies are sometimes aged in slightly more adventurous casks than just French oak and so with all this comes a great price point and a new field to discover.

Try: Copper Republic Honeybush Wood Finish Brandy.

Copper Republic is one of the smaller, more artisan producers and they have some stunning expressions in the Zula Cape Brandy range. They are clean and long-aged, fine examples that can stand up to any international brandies. The Honeybush Wood Finish Brandy from Copper Republic is a Cape Pot Still Brandy finished in the local honeybush wood, giving it a truly unique local twist. giving it almost a sense of ‘terroir’. It is clean and rich with floral and fresh grape notes followed by some peach and mango and plenty of spices. The honeybush wood has a nice soft influence, not overpowering but more of a complement to go along the main spirit aromas and flavours. It is a great brandy to have with a medium bodied cigar and it can be a brilliant base for a Sidecar, not to mention a good old brandy sour (actually, it is much better than just chucking some discounted VS cognac in there). There are plenty of cocktail options, but this is a spirit that is made to be enjoyed how it is and it will not disappoint a seasoned brandy or even whisky drinker. The alcohol is nicely integrated and the flavour elements are all in harmony. Expect beautiful oak spices, fresh, ripe apples, as well as toffee apples, white peach, and apricots. This is a great example of South African brandy with a real local twist. It won a well-deserved gold at the World Brandy Awards in 2020. It is also tremendous value for money.

Size: 750ml
ABV: 40%
Find here: £34.95

South African Whisky

‘Scotch or Bourbon? Neither, South African Single Grain, please!’

Whisky is a popular drink in South Africa. Maybe the Brits are to blame, or maybe it’s because it’s a great drink and South Africans have a taste for finer things. Regardless of that, there are more and more local whiskies produced here and some of them are outstanding. Given the climate, the angel’s share is a bit higher but maturation is also quicker than in Scotland so it is not necessarily a bad deal. Bains and Three Ships are the bigger brands and some won World’s Best at the World Whiskies Awards, showing that whisky from South Africa should be taken seriously.

Try: Copper Republic Single Grain Whisky

Single Grain whiskies have a reputation for only being good for bulking up blended Scotch, traditionally. It’s true that there are still many light, neutral grain whiskies out there worldwide, distilled to a remarkably high strength in continuous column stills and aged in 2nd or 3rd filled casks, which hardly impart anything except faint vanilla notes and a light-yellow hue. They are usually cut down to 40% ABV and are gentle at best, if not dull. This example is definitely not one of those. It is time to think again. The Copper Republic Single Grain Whisky is a small batch whisky with a premium aim at 43%. Distilled from local yellow maize (corn) and matured in freshly charred and second fill ex-bourbon casks, one could say it might be closer to a great Bourbon whiskey than a Scotch but I’d like to say that it is truly South African in its own right. Made to be sipped like a single malt, it is truly the best of its kind. The tasting note from the World Whiskies Awards describes it thus: "on the nose there is buttery fudge, caramel and freshly split vanilla. The soft, sweet, candied palate is instantly attractive, with a pleasant fudge and coconut hit. Earl Grey tea, sea salt caramel, tons of vanilla and ginger spice.” There is indeed a nice spicy edge to the wonderful, smooth but pretty pronounced palate of this beauty and it well deserved its award in 2020.

Size: 750ml
ABV: 43%
Find here: £39.95

South African Gin

‘Dutch settlers? The British Empire? Modern fashion? All of that!’

Gin is fashionable and it’s sad that some critics are shouting about a bubble about to burst, but we are happy that they are wrong. There are still many gin brands popping up globally and sales are still going up. However, the situation with South African gin is a bit more complex and it goes back in time a long way. Just think about the Dutch settlers and the British Empire; both were obsessed with gin and imported the idea of gins to South Africa centuries ago. Some of the modern gins are trying so hard to be different and we’ve tasted many weird and wonderful concoctions that claim they are from a different continent using some botanicals that are so unique to them that other distillers don’t even know about it. Desperate and sometimes boring. It is rather refreshing to see people using their locality and turning their indigenous herbs into parts of their botanical bill. Similar things happen in the Swiss and Austrian Alps, where they use local herbs and berries to create a genuinely local product. The local fynbos vegetation of the Cape is perfect to inspire some gins with a great local twist. These ‘fine-leaf’ plants love the local Mediterranean weather and there are over 8000 different types of them so there is plenty to pick from.

Try: Copper Republic African Dry Gin

The African Dry Gin is a lovely example of a modern dry gin with some traditional botanicals and a local twist. Eleven botanicals have been used, most grown in the rich red soils of the Western Cape. It is round and smooth and that 43% ABV is justified. The wild rosemary, confetti bush and local Buchu plant, which is reminiscent of blackcurrant, work together beautifully with the juniper, citrus, coriander and honeybush. A crisp dry gin with a nice long finish and a sense of locality. Brilliant in a classic G&T with the local Indian tonic water brand Fitch & Leedes and it is wonderful in a dry martini. It’s no surprise that it picked up World’s Best Signature Botanical Gin winner at the World Gin Awards 2020.

Size: 750ml
ABV: 43%
Find here: £29.95

Also try: Copper Republic Rooibos and Grapefruit Gin

The Rooibos and Grapefruit Gin is a harmonious fusion of South African Rooibos and Cape ruby grapefruit combined with rare fynbos botanicals and African ginger root. Some flavoured gins can end up being as sweet as a liqueur and infused with manmade flavourings, but not in this case. It is a natural, artisan small batch product with a great balance between the juniper and other spicy gin elements and the rooibos and grapefruit. This is a full-bodied example with a more earthy approach, a round and big texture and plenty of fruit, sweet root notes and a nice warming finish. Try it on the rocks with a wedge of grapefruit or with the Fitch & Leedes Grapefruit Tonic for a full citrus explosion.

Size: 750ml
ABV: 43%
Find here: £35.95  

Local Tonic Water - Fitch & Leedes

Sometimes a bit of distance from the global buzz can help magical things happen to local brands. When the big tonic water boom was happening and a particularly successful brand was rising in the UK and beyond, Fitch & Leedes started to grow in South Africa. It is the local premium mixer brand with an amazingly crisp and well balanced Indian Tonic Water, a beautiful Bitter Lemon and a wide selection of other flavours including the aforementioned Grapefruit Tonic. It’s a brand to watch and I highly recommend trying their tonics, so you can decide for yourself how good they are, but we certainly love them.

Try: Fitch & Leedes Indian Tonic

Size: 500ml
Find here: £6.49 for 6

Also Try: Fitch & Leedes Grapefruit Tonic

Size: 500ml
Find here: £6.49 for 6

Copper Republic is a fascinating distillery with very high standards, represented around the world by Rusty Rabbit International. Alcohol bans have been lifted, but we still need to support South Africa’s incredible drinks industry and celebrate the beautiful drinks and culture of such a wonderful country. When all this is over and travel restrictions are lifted, why not plan a visit to enjoy the wonderful spirits of the Cape?

For more from Tobias, make sure you have a read of Tried & Tested: Tantalising Indian Tonics and for links of more companies in the hospitality industry you can support, check out Virtual Wine & Spirits Tastings.

Tried & Tested: Tantalising Indian Tonics

By Tobias Gorn

This week, we have been on a mission to find the best Indian tonic water for your drinking pleasure. You’re welcome! We picked some of the bigger and smaller players and tasted them against each other both neat and with a splash of gin. Before all of that, however, how about a brief history lesson? Let’s take a look at the very definition of ‘tonic’ and ‘tonic water’ before we start the fun bit of tasting them.

What is tonic water?

We all love the romantic idea of gin and tonic being an essential medicine to survive everyday life and maybe it is right? Or at least it was once. The story of fighting malaria and making gin a bit more palatable is all well and correct. Add a bit of lemon so scurvy is out of the way and we are all having a quinine, vitamin C and gin-fuelled, fun colonial party somewhere in India or so. They say the 6 o’clock cocktail hour started out in the colonies, given that the malaria carrying mosquitoes were getting active that time of the day. The history and definition is fairly simple: mix your bitter quinine antimalarial powder with soda, add a bit of sugar to make it more palatable and some citrus to garnish it. The very definition of Indian Tonic Water is based on that recipe.

Modern tonic waters today have lower quinine levels. The question is then, where is the line between some random mixer concoction and proper tonic water? If we put a conservative hat on we should say that quinine – or at least a similar bitter substitute – makes tonic water what it is. If it is sickly sweet and fruity or floral with no bitterness, it is not a tonic water anymore in the classic interpretation and it will also likely alter the flavour of the spirit too much. Perhaps we should follow gin’s example? No juniper, no gin, so why not ‘no quinine, no tonic’?

Not just Gin

It’s worth noting at this juncture that tonic is a popular soft drink on its own. It might sound peculiar but I can recall summer holidays where my dad was enjoying some cold tonic water and as a kid, I could not understand why this bitter nonsense was enjoyable. Now I understand the old man, especially as I sit here with dozens of different samples in front of me. With or without alcohol, we should always look further afield than gin. Vodka and tonic, brandy and tonic and even whisk(e)y or tequila with some of our favourite quinine goodness make a refreshing highball. Tonic water is also great with some wine, vermouth and white port. And don’t forget the many alcohol-free, botanical ‘spirits’ appearing on the market wanting to be the G in the G& alternative T. Recently, a sample of Pentire Adrift found the way to the office and it was delicious with tonic water and a couple drops of lemon bitters. Very loveable indeed.

The Great Tonic Taste-off

Back to the old faithful: the Gin & Tonic. Really, this is the ultimate test for a good tonic, so in this test, we tried the tonics chilled and neat first then with a dash of London Dry Gin - all of them in similar amounts (ratio 2:1) to keep it fair and accurate. 

The criteria for a good tonic are: intensity of flavour, balance between sweet, bitter and acidity and how it works with a juniper-lead, simple London Dry Gin. We need intensity but not so much to change or overpower the spirit too much. The main and most important factor is balance between the aromatics and flavour components. Effervescence is also thrown into the mix here; we want to know how fizzy the drink is initially and how long it keeps its bubbles. Some start lower but may go longer. Others might drop their fizz rapidly. The effervescence has to be in balance and in relation with the rest of the aromas and flavours to justify itself.

This is the time to mention the container design. One would think the design and branding of the glass or plastic bottles or cans is crucial as most customers pick with their eyes, but it is a tad more complicated than that. A good name or stunning branding does not affect the taste, and level of fizz but it will change the minimum and optimum CO2 pressure level. So, it matters if it’s a crown cap, a screw cap on a small glass container, a can or bigger plastic bottle as this ultimately will have an effect on the effervescence. Cans are lighter but ultimately, they can be more limited on fizz level than glass bottles. Here are our findings below. This is not an exhaustive list; we deliberately left out most of the bad examples and those that are currently unavailable. 

Harvey Nichols Orange & Lavender Tonic Water 

The lavender comes across first on the nose. Crisp and fresh on the palate with a bit of citrus - citric acid? All natural. It has a weight to it and the bitterness is pretty subtle. The lavender comes back in the end - retronasal, probably. It is effervescent enough on the gentle end but it keeps its fizz nicely. With the gin, it goes nicely. Balanced between the gin and the mixer aromatics and it is pretty on the palate with just enough bitterness. Very nice and it is a great mixer as a dry tonic water. The only little thing is that one must like lavender to enjoy it. It is a premium tonic in a beautiful neat packaging.

Size: 200ml
Score: 8.5/10
Find here: £1.50

Schweppes Indian Tonic Water

Crisp and balanced with medium intensity and a nice bitterness. Fizzy and keeps its effervescence for a long time. It is the classic tonic water and there’s a reason for it. I enjoy when bloggers and other self-proclaimed experts try to say it is not good. It is the definition of a good Indian Tonic Water. Great? Very nearly. 

Size: 150ml
Score: 8/10
Find here: £4 for 12

Schweppes Crisp Tonic Water- Signature Collection

Pronounced on the nose, big on the palate with a big, bitter and zesty finish. It is a classic that can take on a wide variety of spirits. Dry and crisp despite the sugar level. People like to dislike the big brands, but this is just a really good example of crisp Indian Tonic Water and there’s a reason why Schweppes is still around today.

Size: 150ml
Score: 9.5/10
Find here: £4.25 for 8

The London Essence Original Indian Tonic Water

Herbal, botanical nose. It is very complex with floral and herbal notes. Not very bitter but it is pleasant and enjoyable with a dry finish. It is perhaps a bit further away from the classic Indian Tonic Water beaten track. Good for those who prefer less bitter tonics.

Size: 150ml
Score: 7.5/10
Find here: £3.50 for 6

Fever-Tree Premium Indian Tonic Water

Pretty shy on the nose and bittersweet on the palate. It has a sweet caramel note. The finish has lovely bitterness and some confectionery. It is popular and that is excellent but it could be made better. The burnt sugar taste is a bit overpowering. Not a winner for us this time but we can’t ignore its popularity.

Size: 150ml
Score: 7/10
Find here: £3.80 for 8

Fitch & Leedes Indian Tonic Water

Aromatic and focused on the nose. Zesty dry start on the palate with plenty of appetising quinine. The sugar is well integrated with the citrus zest and bitterness. It is the most pronounced of the Indian Tonic Waters and it makes it versatile enough to take a wide range of gins on. Another great example when the sugar level can be higher if it is balanced by citrus zest and bitterness.

Size: 200ml
Score: 9.5/10
Find here: £6.49 for 6

Yorkshire Tonic

A zesty, crisp, full flavour example that we really liked. It is pronounced enough to make a truly great tonic but balanced between sugar, acidity and bitterness to support the gin greatly. Well done God’s own country! A great example of well balanced ingredients working nicely together.

Size: 200ml
Score: 8.5/10
Find here: £5.50 for 6

San Pellegrino Tonica

Refreshing, crisp and citric acid-led. It is bitter enough to be great as a tonic water and it is pleasant on the palate. Great with gin as a supporting act and a nice soft drink on its own. One would expect a tad more bitter from one of the nations that excels in fine, appetising bitter flavours in drinks. The effervescence is appropriate and persistent.

Size: 200ml
Score: 8/10
Find here: £3.30 for 4

Something a bit different: Bitter Lemon

If one increases (or overdoes) the citrus it becomes a Bitter Lemon; the slightly old-fashioned lemon tonic cousin of our classic Indian Tonic Water. Bitter lemon is a great mixer to go with slightly sweeter and/or fruitier gins and we hope it will come back to fashion soon as a great classic mixer. Here’s a personal favourite of mine:

Fitch & Leedes Bitter Lemon

A cloudy bitter lemon with a great citrus definition, plenty of bitterness and a moderate sweetness to balance the beautiful lemon peel and pith notes. It is crisper and bolder than an average lemon tonic and that makes it great with modern, bolder gins with a touch of sweetness.

Size: 200ml
Score: 9/10
Find here: £6.49 for 6

There are many more tonics and some are great and special by being different but still good enough to be considered as a suitable alternative like the Archibald, where quinine was replaced by gentian and other botanicals, or the Artisan Drinks Co’s Classic London Tonic or the Llanllyr Source from Wales including their Light Tonic Water expression. There are modern takes on this genre trying to get back to the classic tonic syrup heritage with a darker ‘natural’ colour and maybe less emphasis on bitterness or effervescence.  These can be great examples for a niche expression that can be cherished by open minded connoisseurs but can be easily misunderstood by consumers looking for a classic, clear fizzy example. If you are after the best in classic Indian tonics, however, we hope this little article helps you find inspiration.

Looking for some gin to mix with these delicious tonics? Then, have a look at 6 Gins Perfect for any Occasion or The Best Scottish Gins to Explore!