Description
From the cellar of Kalmoesfontein and the mountain slopes of the Paardeberg comes Caperitif. Chenin Blanc fortified with spirit, gently sweetened by the sugar of the grapes, bittered by Quinchoa bark and flavored with 35 ingredients from the Cape, such as fynbos, kalmoes and naartjies.
With South Africa’s good soil and ideal climate comes diverse flora and fauna. The Cape floral Kingdom, growing along a coastal stretch of about 150 miles, is the smallest and richest of the 6 floral kingdoms of the world and has the highest amount of diversity and endemic plants found anywhere on the planet. Many of these plants don’t occur anywhere else and many of them have unique flavors and intriguing aromas South Africans call this “Fynbos”. It forms the base of Caperitif.
For decades this unique Aperitif inspired barmen all over the world. Then, around 1910, the company that made it disappeared, and with it the product as well as the recipe. Fast foward almost 100 year to when Danish mixologist Lars Erik Lyndgaard Schmidt met Adi Badenhorst, and the ghost ingredient became first a possibility, and then a reality.
94 Points – Vinous, May 2017
