Whisky is the new gin – a lesson in waiting

I may just take up whisky drinking.

Pieter and I were invited to a whisky tasting recently at Little Havana in Umhlanga.

The evening was hosted by Andy Watts who was recently named Master Distiller/Blender of the Year in the World Whiskies Awards (no small feat).

He runs the only commercial whisky distillery on the continent for the Distell group and is the brain behind the popular South African whisky, Bains.

Starting off as an English cricketer who played first class cricket for Derbyshire in the 1980’s, his is an absolutely fascinating story.

The game brought him to South Africa where he fell in love with both the sunshine and a beautiful woman, now his wife.

He was offered a job at Stellenbosch Farmers Winery due to the bottling manager having been fired for doing something he shouldn’t have.

Fast forward many years and his creation, Bains, has recently been named the world’s best grain whisky (quite a feather in his cap).

It is a sweeter whisky aimed at young people, especially women, who are not traditionally whisky drinkers.

What really stood out for me though was the time factor.

From concept to creation and bottles on the shelf took a long ten years.

That is a lesson in biding one’s time right there.

Being part of a very big company, first it took an age to get the idea past the bean counters and even onto the boardroom table.

Then the process of making whisky is a long one anyway (Bains spends three years maturing in bourbon casks and a further 18 to 30 months in a second set of bourbon casts).

But anything worth doing is worth waiting for, right?

Right now Andy is working on projects that he will not see realised in his lifetime.

That got me thinking about our instant gratification culture and how we are being robbed of, firstly, the satisfaction that comes from seeing the fruit of a tree that you planted and, secondly, the even greater satisfaction of knowing that what you do affects future generations and is not for your own direct benefit.

I am generalising, but usually older people are better at this.

Probably because they have had the time to better understand the value of waiting.

To see a local example of this take a trip to Townsend Park.

You will noticed a spinney of young saplings has been planted. Long time Townsend Road resident Leon Botha took it upon himself to plant them.

The new additions were sorely needed and will be a great asset to the park.

***

Well done to Ballito Rotary for putting on the first Ballito Family Festival over the weekend.

It was quite impressive: so well organised and such a great offering from inflatables for the kids to gin and live music for the adults.

The water slides kept Daniël and his buddies busy for the whole day.

We only bribed them away with promises of candy floss.

They definitely were not at capacity though.

I hope more people support it next year.

***

A preacher was completing a temperance sermon: with great expression he said, “If I had all the beer in the world, I’d take it and throw it into the river.”

With even greater emphasis, he said, “And if I had all the wine in the world, I’d take it and throw it into the river.”

And then, finally, he said, “And if I had all the whisky in the world, I’d take it and throw it into the river.”

He sat down.

The song leader then stood very cautiously and announced with a pleasant smile, “For our closing song, let us sing Hymn #365: ‘Shall We Gather At the River.’”