This past week I was invited to join The Black Cellar Club, as they previewed the video of their recent Route 62 Brandy Tour. Sponsored by the SA Brandy Foundation, they were introduced to ‘brandy homes’ along the way. The Black Cellar Club BLACC, founded in 2016 by Vula Afrika, hosted the event at The Stack private members lounge in Cape Town, launching two new brandy cocktails.
The video, produced by the multi-talented Eden Weiss, was filmed during the recent tour of the R62 where key members of BLACC onboard the ‘Brandy Bus’ visited Van Ryn’s Distillery Stellenbosch, as well as Kingna Distillery, Boplaas Family Vineyards, Grundheim Wines and Oude Molen Cape Brandy over a three-day epic odyssey.
After the tour and in celebration of the video, BLACC’s senior mixologist Archie Mapuqaua generously created two signature Brandy Cocktails with knowledge gained from visiting some of the fine SA brandy homes, where the spirits were sampled. Archie recently won The Protegé Season 2 mixology competition by presenting one of his BLACC Brandy Cocktails which landed up being the perfect mix.
Archie Mapuqaua, Sommelier One & Only, Cape Town.
Currently, BLACC has ‘Chapters’ in the Western Cape, Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu provinces with approximately a 1000 members, mainly sourced from the country’s burgeoning tourism sector.
The Essential Details
The Black Cellar Club was founded and is managed by Vula Afrika with the Brandy tour hosted by Christelle Reade-Jahn, Director of the South African Brandy Foundation, along with Aubrey Ngcungama, Ian Manley and Julie Killias. For more information about BLACC, follow the club via the Facebook page. Video and Photos by Eden Weiss Videography, who joined BLACC to capture the tour.
