Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky’s global award good for Africa – Watts

Master distiller of the award-winning product, Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky, Andy Watts, has attributed the global recognition of brand to the capacity of African businesses to conceptualise, design, and develop brands that can compete on the global stage, utilising available local material resources and naturally endowed environment.

It would be recalled that Africa’s first single grain whisky, Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky, was voted the World’s Best Grain Whisky at the annual Whisky Magazine’s World Whisky Awards (WWA) held in London recently.

Watts, a South African, who was in London to receive the award, said the recognition was overwhelming news not only for the brand but for the whole African continent.

According to him in a statement, Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky became the first South African whisky to be awarded this coveted accolade, ahead of those from traditional whisky-producing countries such as Ireland, Scotland and the USA. The whiskies were assessed blind, based on three tasting rounds, by an independent panel of judges that included some of the foremost international whisky palates.

Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky distiller, Jeff Green also shared his excitement on the award, noting that the win was well deserved.

“Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky, launched in 2009, was created to express the extraordinary properties of South Africa’s very best home-grown grains, fermented and distilled locally. With a distinctive South African taste profile, the maize is the same as that which was imported into Scotland up until the mid 1980s to make Scotch whisky,” Green said.

Green stressed that South Africa’s warm climate contributed to the excellence of its whiskies, explaining in the statement that the maturation process was accelerated by the faster interaction between wood, spirit and air to produce whiskies of great smoothness. “Essentially, the higher ambient temperatures mean our whiskies reach maturity at a younger age,” he said.