Dorrance
Dorrance Wines recently unveiled their new urban wine cellar and tasting room located in the Heritage Square, one of Cape Town’s most iconic buildings.The narrow doorways, exposed granite walls, dimly-lit rows of barriques and an old forge provide the perfect old world setting for a unique City Winery.
Christophe & Sabrina Durand’s journey to create a space in which to nurture and showcase wines that express terroir, honour tradition and exude elegance.
This quest corresponds with Dorrance wine’s credo of producing finely crafted wines in the French tradition. Hailing from Calvados, Christophe moved to Cape Town in 1995, where he established himself as a supplier of premium French barriques and also met Sabrina.
However, the quest to discover South African wines that expressed origin and individuality led to the release of their first wine, the Cuvee Ameena Syrah 2000. The birth of their daughter was commemorated with the launch of the Cuvee Anais Chardonnay in 2004 and in 2011 the celebrated Kama Chenin Blanc emerged to complete the star-studded lineup.
Victim of their own success. Demand had risen to such a level that continuing under their existing infrastructure would have been unsustainable.
Furthermore, while their wines were available in prominent restaurants and wine retailers, there was nowhere for wine enthusiasts to go to experience Dorrance’s winemaking philosophy or interact with the people behind the brand.
To achieve perfect expression, Christophe relies on unique vineyard sites, early picking and rigorous sorting to bring in,” beautiful, healthy berries which shape a more balanced wine with a low PH, higher natural acidity and lower alcohol.”
Coutellier
British born Quint Cutler was an avid brewer making various types of craft beer in his late teens and early twenty’s. While wine wasn’t the popular choice in Britain in those days Quint also experimented with wine making and contemplated a career in the wine Industry.
However fate had other things in mind and Quint went on to embark upon an international career in aviation and transport.
In 1989, Quint moved to France in his mid-twenties and spent the next twenty two years in the Aviation Industry based in Paris. France and the French way of life rubbed off on Quint and he was soon a keen amateur wine connoisseur.
Floriane Cutler, passionate about people, spent the largest part of her career in the humanitarian industry, working in Iraq and Bosnia amongst others. Her last position was as Director for Fundraising and Communications at AIDES, an HIV/AIDS Association caring for and lobbying on behalf of those affected by the condition. Floriane’s love of wine, as with many of the French, is in her genes. Her fondness for Champagne and all things bubbly come from her family who emigrated to Brittany from Reims, France’s Champagne Region.
A brief visit to Stellenbosch set the scene for this couple’s move to the Wine Lands in South Africa and a return to Quint’s passion of wine making with wife and two Children.
Christian Drouin
The story of Drouin calvados began around 1960. There was nothing to indicate that Christian DROUIN the elder, an industrialist from Rouen, was destined to make a career in spirits. Nothing, that is, apart his taste for good food and good wines.
When he bought a farm in Gonneville he decided to use the cider-apple orchards to produce calvados. His aims were simple: produce a top-quality spirit, the best. “My father transmitted me the calvados virus”, says the younger Christian DROUIN, who has today given the family business a world-wide reputation. The brand is now sold as far afield as the USA and Japan. The third generation is now hard at work. It maintains the traditions that have enabled the estate to become one of the 100 “sites of excellence in taste” selected by the ministry for culture.
In 1995 the European foundation awarded the estate its European Prestige Grand Prix for the whole of its production, which represents the quintessence of calvados.
IBHU
Some brief background, my name is Paula Ansley and, together with my husband (Les), have jumped into the world of gin. We recently moved the family back to South Africa after spending 15 years in the UK (Les is South African). Both Les and I were in academia doing research and lecturing but became disillusioned and yearned for the opportunities that we felt South Africa offered both in terms of enterprise and also being able to make a difference.
Shortly after we arrived, I had an opportunity to go to Kenya on safari and it was while I was sipping a G&T while watching a herd of elephants listening to the guide explain how particular elephants are in their browsing habits and yet how little of the plant material they actually digest that I had this crazy idea … would it be possible to make an elephant dung based gin?
So we did.
That is how Indlovu gin was born – a gin made in Africa … designed by elephants. ‘Indlovu’ is the word for elephant in several African languages and we use the foraging habits of the world’s largest land animals to select the botanicals used in the ginning process.
We felt that it was important that the brand is underpinned by a strong conservation message. So 15% of the profits from the sale of the gin are donated to the Africa Foundation to support their work in wildlife conservation, we also support Langrug Soup Kitchen, Franschhoek with gas for cooking.
As part of our commitment to South Africa, we are also very excited that we have been awarded Proudly South African status. We are also very pleased to have been mentioned as one of the top three South African gins of 2018 by influencer and gin blogger Surita at Ginnedup with recent national and international media coverage including the BBC, CNN, GQ magazine, The Times newspaper, London. The gin was well received at the World Travel Market in Cape Town last month – the gin is proving most popular with overseas visitors as a truly Africa-centric take-home gift.
