After launching about six months ago, carving out a niche in the premium gin market, Pienaar & Son are diversifying their offering with Waskis - their take on typical vodka. I attended the launch of the Waskis vodka at their distillery in the heart of Cape Town on Thursday, 18 May.

The event saw 50 guests sample the first batch and the reception was excellent. I must admit the taste is really something special. Very unpretentious, with well-balanced flavors and quite delightful when it hits the tongue the first time. I spoke to Andre Pienaar, co-founder of Pienaar & Son and asked him to tell us more about Waskis and the distilling process.

About the distillery, Pienaar & Son.

Pienaar & Son launched in December 2016 and we launched with two gins, the Empire and the Orient. The business is run by me and my dad, he is takes care of the technical side of things and I focus more on the creative side of the business. The easiest way that I usually explain it to people is that he made the stove and I am the chef. We have been here for six or seven months doing the gin and slowly but surely started working on the vodka. And now we launched the vodka, it is called Waskis.

Our distilling techniques are very much based on cutting edge, engineering principles. I try to stay away from the pretentiousness that is always present in the premium alcohol you find in the liquor stores. So, we go straight from fermentation to 96.4% vodka spirit in one go. I wanted to do the vodka to really extend the brand family and it was a nice target to hit to really understand our equipment a bit better but I have slowly fallen in love with vodka. There is nowhere to hide with vodka. Vodka is such a pure spirit you can't add anything to it. So, whatever the yeast created in the fermentation, you can try to distil it and try to select what was created but you can't add anything. And so, I feel there's a lot more skill involved, more craft to it. I feel there's more pride there. 

Read more at source: Bizcommunity