Artisanal Cape producers prove that any time is gin time

Cape Town often has four seasons in one day. I experience this in a sensory way at the Gember Distillery, based near the famous Muizenberg beach and makers of the Two Gingers gin brand.

Co-founder and CEO Simon Cranswick is a convivial host. “I usually taste along with my guests,” he says, eyes twinkling, as we settle at the casual, rustic-styled bar counter. Here’s a man who is clearly passionate about his product.

Two Gingers bottles the seasons in their range of four variants. We start with the Pink Pomelo, conceptualised for refreshing summer sipping. Grapefruit is forefront on the nose, then, in taste, there’s a gentle sweetness from cardamom and liquorice root. “This is beautifully quaffable,” I think, lazy poolside images in mind.

The Spice Route sub-brand signifies autumn, and there’s a difference in tone, with hints of nuttiness and orange. “Can you taste the grains of paradise?” Cranswick asks. I had no idea what this is, but there’s a definite peppery aftertaste, which comes from this ginger family spice.    

Cinnamon and nutmeg whisper within Soul Flame, Two Ginger’s winter-styled gin. On its own I find it almost malty, creamy in mouthfeel; with an equivalent measure of tonic the botanicals bounce back.    

Lastly, Cranswick pours La Primavera, Italian for springtime. The evocative name matches its delicious, quirky taste — lemon grass, potpourri, a bittersweet earthiness. Definitely our favourite, my wife concur.

Introduced to his partner Wynand de Vries, the origin of the brand name falls into place: he has a mop of red hair; Cranswick evidently lost his somewhere along life’s journey. But his eyes twinkle again, as if to say, as he refreshes our glasses, “Things change — just like the seasons.”

Portside craft and charm

In the busy harbour market area, the eponymous Hout Bay Harbour Distillery is surprisingly small. Patrons amble in from neighbouring art galleries and fish-and-chips eateries, perhaps seeking shade from the summer sun or refuge from screeching seagulls, and tempted by signboards for gin slushies. Tastings are conducted ad hoc at the bar counter or up close and personal alongside the distillation tanks, watching batches of product roll along the bottling conveyor.

Our hostess Khadijah (Dee) Cornelius balances super-friendliness with efficiency. It’s a characteristic common to all the distilleries I visit, because these are small operations, requiring hands-on multitasking.

She lines up six pony shot-glasses for each of us, and the serious fun begins. Similar to Gember Distillery, each gin is first sipped neat, Dee signalling the respective variants’ taste profiles and nuances. Unlike at other venues, though, she then muddles selected garnishes in the glass — herbs, cardamom seeds, lime zest, orange peel — to enhance or compliment flavours before topping up with either tonic, soda water or ginger ale. Retasting, new dimensions are revealed: tonic lifts the juniper in the classic London Dry; orange softens the higher 57% alcohol of the Navy Strength; soda accentuates the herbaciousness of the distillery’s Lavande, a lavender-infused gin aperitif.

My brother likes this melding of flavours, and, overall, his favourite is the distillery’s highly unusual Chilli Gin. It’s too sinus-fiery for me; I prefer the more predicable kick from the clean profile of Navy Strength with tonic. I’m unsurprised that this was voted best Navy Gin at the 2020 World Gin Awards.

Hope, faith and clarity

Navigate mazy Salt River side streets — a neighbourhood of light manufacturing, creative industries and faith ministries — to find Hope Distillery. We’re greeted warmly by assistant distiller Ranga Mlambo and manager Miranda du Toit, whose T-shirts, promisingly, are emblazoned “No Half Measures”.

Upstairs, the large tasting area resembles a trendy bar — which, named Strange Love, it was, before the financial pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic forced Hope to focus. 

Actually, the distillery creates a wide range of products: agave spirit, rum, vodka, and its own tonic water and mixers brand, The Good Mix. But it specialises in gin, producing and bottling the Hope, Hobbs, ClemenGold and Resurrection Bush Gin brands.

For purposes of responsible tasting, we, too, need to focus. The tasting board holds four cutely corked, unlabelled miniature bottles, numbered to match the order: the Hope London Dry, Mediterranean and African Botanical variants, and then Hobbs Cape Dry. The first and last are classic, delightful, but difficult to distinguish. In contrast, the Mediterranean has discernible notes of basil, thyme and rosemary. “Some people say it reminds them of a pizza,” Du Toit confirms.

African Botanical has an unusual subtlety, probably attributable to its unique ingredient, buchu. I find it almost medicinal, and my least favourite. Master distiller and co-owner Lucy Beard isn’t in the least offended. “Are you sure you didn’t mix the numbers up?” Du Toit teases me.

Like Gember and Hout Bay Harbour, there’s passion and generosity at Hope, and we are offered a special, fifth taste, the Resurrection Bush Gin. The aroma in the glass is fynbos; the first taste is a honeyed sweetness, then inklings of mildly sour lemon-lime. Having now sampled many gins, it’s clear: this one and Two Gingers’ La Primavera have my vote as the very best in botanical-based distilling brilliance. They’re in a glass of their own, one might say.   

Gember Distillery, Unit 6, Platinum Park, 101 Capricorn Drive, Muizenberg, tastings by appointment, T 021 180 2852

Hope Distillery, 7 Hopkins Street, Salt River, tastings by appointment, T 021 447 1950

Hout Bay Harbour Distillery, 31 Harbour Rd, Hout Bay, T 082 443 9360