THE marketers of expensive goods decorate them with gold or platinum labels and elaborate claims and advertise them in glossy places mostly to justify the exorbitant prices they want to charge you.
It is called building your brand, rather than branding your bull.
As a result, you can buy a watch that “can save your life and look”; “people’s shoes” that cost a week’s minimum wages; perfumes that will transport you to exotic locations for only a little more than the price of a package tour and a zillion-rand watch that will “help protect our planet”.
Come again?
Marketers also like to make products synonymous with exotic locations so that: coffee = Brazil; tea = Sri Lanka; engineering = Germany; cooking = France; restaurant = Italy; rum = Caribbean; vodka = Russia and whisky = Scotland.
One expert source even insists that, for it to be whisky at all, “it must be made at a Scottish distillery, using water and malted barley; it must spend at least three years maturing in oak casks” and it “must be matured in Scotland”. The ingredients have to be soft Scotland water, malted barley, yeast, peat and time.
From that try to work out how a whisky made from South African mealies, some say, was adjudged the best grain whisky in this year’s Whisky Magazine World Whisky Awards.
Those who saw this news report might be sipping their own conclusions from a bottle of Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky at R200 a cork pop. That’s what you pay for having to keep anything in a second-hand barrel for three years and two more.
The panel of judges, “drawn from the best drinks journalists and retailers across the world, with industry representatives made up of master blenders, distillers and brand ambassadors in the final round”, had more than 300 whiskies to sip.
From these they chose the best single malt, best blended, best blended malt, best North American, best whisky liqueur, best grain whisky and winners in more than 80 lesser categories and sub-categories.
Another South African brand, Three Ships, won five category awards: best African single malt, African single malt 10-year-old, African blended, African blended no age statement and African blended 12 years and under.
All of which begs the question: When is a whisky not a “grain whisky”? So far as this Chiel can fathom, every possible whisky is made of a grain, whether it be barley, rye, corn, buckwheat or good old Free State mealies.
Bain’s distiller Jeff Green says: “This isn’t just a win for this brand but for South African whisky-making. Only the finest South African grain is used to create our elegant premium whisky.” Do we mean mealies?
But there is the unique ingredient from Wellington: “Water that flows over 850-million- year-old sandstone and indigenous fynbos. That is why Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky holds a unique and distinctive flavour profile.”
How about that, boet?
Next time the host asks: “What would you like to drink?”
You can safely say: “Give me a dop of that Vrystaat Mealie.”
Today’s Chiel is Gavin Stewart:
SA mealies pip whisky award
It is called building your brand, rather than branding your bull.
As a result, you can buy a watch that “can save your life and look”; “people’s shoes” that cost a week’s minimum wages; perfumes that will transport you to exotic locations for only a little more than the price of a package tour and a zillion-rand watch that will “help protect our planet”.
Come again?
Marketers also like to make products synonymous with exotic locations so that: coffee = Brazil; tea = Sri Lanka; engineering = Germany; cooking = France; restaurant = Italy; rum = Caribbean; vodka = Russia and whisky = Scotland.
One expert source even insists that, for it to be whisky at all, “it must be made at a Scottish distillery, using water and malted barley; it must spend at least three years maturing in oak casks” and it “must be matured in Scotland”. The ingredients have to be soft Scotland water, malted barley, yeast, peat and time.
From that try to work out how a whisky made from South African mealies, some say, was adjudged the best grain whisky in this year’s Whisky Magazine World Whisky Awards.
Those who saw this news report might be sipping their own conclusions from a bottle of Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky at R200 a cork pop. That’s what you pay for having to keep anything in a second-hand barrel for three years and two more.
The panel of judges, “drawn from the best drinks journalists and retailers across the world, with industry representatives made up of master blenders, distillers and brand ambassadors in the final round”, had more than 300 whiskies to sip.
From these they chose the best single malt, best blended, best blended malt, best North American, best whisky liqueur, best grain whisky and winners in more than 80 lesser categories and sub-categories.
Another South African brand, Three Ships, won five category awards: best African single malt, African single malt 10-year-old, African blended, African blended no age statement and African blended 12 years and under.
All of which begs the question: When is a whisky not a “grain whisky”? So far as this Chiel can fathom, every possible whisky is made of a grain, whether it be barley, rye, corn, buckwheat or good old Free State mealies.
Bain’s distiller Jeff Green says: “This isn’t just a win for this brand but for South African whisky-making. Only the finest South African grain is used to create our elegant premium whisky.” Do we mean mealies?
But there is the unique ingredient from Wellington: “Water that flows over 850-million- year-old sandstone and indigenous fynbos. That is why Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky holds a unique and distinctive flavour profile.”
How about that, boet?
Next time the host asks: “What would you like to drink?”
You can safely say: “Give me a dop of that Vrystaat Mealie.”
Today’s Chiel is Gavin Stewart:
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending Now
Latest Videos