Sire of spirits Roger Jorgensen started his career as a farmer and winemaker before making his foray into distilling hard tack in 1995. Under the guidance of Robert Leaute of Remy Martin and Buks Venter of KWV, he started producing his much lauded Savingnac Potstill brandy and soon realised that his heart lay with the still. He subsequently ventured into handcrafting vodka, gin, and recently even absinthe.

According to Roger, every one of his products is the result of hours of pondering and research to make each one a perfect expression of its kind. “We use real ingredients instead of essences and extracts and take a great deal of care in our hand-crafted techniques so that each batch is unique,” he explains. Roger’s unique Primitiv Vodka, for instance, is crafted from organic spelt, a grain that was popular between the Bronze Age and Medieval times, and is now a speciality crop. This primitive wheat gives Roger’s spirit its characteristically smooth and creamy finish with taste accents of pepper and aniseed. Another labour of love, Jorgensen’s beautifully bottled gin is a heady blend of aromatic ingredients including wild Tuscan juniper berries; angelica, orris, calamus and liquorice roots; African wild ginger; and bitter apricot kernels. Handcrafted in small batches in a copper potstill, the resultant elixir is delicate and fruity – perfect for martinis at sundown.

Not surprisingly, the production schedule at Jorgensen is chock-a-block. “Everything has its time,” says Roger. “Brandy is made during the wine harvest between January and March; gin and absinthe whenever we have grown and accumulated enough of the precious aromatics to make them; and vodka all year round, as long as the spelt lasts.”

Roger maintains that producing spirits on a small scale has definite advantages. “Our spend is on the quality of the product, not on promoting, marketing and distributing millions of bottles of factory liquors,” he says. “We get to pack a lot of love into each bottle and get to connect with people who care about what they consume as much as we care about the product and the process.”

Other products at Jorgensen’s Distillery include Field of Dreams Absinthe and Naked Lemon Limoncello. They’re all available at Jorgensen's Distillery (Versailles Farm, Regent Street, Wellington; 021 864 1777), Wine @ The Mill in Woodstock and select Societi Brasserie Bistros.

By Annette Klinger
Photograph: Jan Ras