Van Ryn's named Top Brandy Producer

Van Ryn’s 12 Year Old Distiller’s Reserve, 15 Year Old Fine Cask Reserve and 20 Year Old Collector’s Reserve achieved Platinum ratings of above 95 index points; while Van Ryn’s 10 Year Old Vintage achieved a Grand Gold of above 93 index points. These three brandies make up three of the top five ranked brandies in the SAWi Grand Wines Collection.

SAWi’s unique ‘Algorithm of Excellence’ is applied to measure the performance of individual wines, across multiple vintages, and compares and condenses the results from more than 100 multinational competitions, reviews and listings, acknowledging the nature of the competition and any additional accolades bestowed on a wine, and expresses this as a single value out of 100.

“Van Ryn’s is proud to consider itself part of the South African Grand Wines Collection with our excellent SAWi ratings,” said master distiller Marlene Bester.

Sourced from 585 wineries or more than 6,000 wines, the Grand Wines Collection currently includes 494 wines and only 203 wines, representing 66 wineries, have achieved Platinum status.

In comparison with previous years, judges said that many more accolades were awarded for brandies. “This marks the renewed interest in the category, which is known internationally for its quality,” Bester said.

More information about the Grand Wines is available from http://sawineindex.com/page/grand-wines.