KolleGin, a local gin made by four friends, has been awarded a gold Michelangelo International Wine & Spirits Award medal. The group of women started brewing colourful craft gin that comes in various flavours in 2019 and have since even begun exporting the beverage beyond our shores.
The Michelangelo International Wine & Spirits Awards was established in 1997 to offer South African producers the opportunity of having their wines adjudicated locally by a highly experienced and respected panel of professionals from around the globe.
Since 2003 the competition has received an increasing number of entries from international wine producers. The competition remains unique in South Africa, in that all judges are hand-picked wine experts, representing all seven continents.
KolleGin’s Annel Oosthuizen, expressed her excitement over the brand winning the prestigious award. “We are so proud and excited because we are just mothers who happen to make lovely gin. It’s amazing that our product is being recognised for how great it is,” she explained.
KolleGin received a gold medal under the gin category after scoring no less than 89 points out of 100 during a blind tasting of the beverage by the award’s panel of judges. The brand makes gin in different flavours including a blue coloured “original juniper” and pink “rosé” but it was the brown hued “rooibos” flavour also infused with honey that won the judges over.
“We could only enter one of our flavours, so we chose rooibos because it’s so distinctly South African. So, having it recognised, will open up more doors for the brand overseas,” said Oosthuizen. The mommies have started exporting the handcrafted gin to Germany where the spirit has been eagerly welcomed.
KolleGin has also been well received locally with booming sales in boutiques around Bloemfontein and online. Oosthuizen expressed that despite lockdown the brand has been able to expand because it caused more people to embrace buying online.
“In lockdown there were actually lots of opportunities to expand your brand. We started a non-alcoholic range during this time. I think before lockdown people were scared to buy online but now, they see that it’s a reliable way to get what they want,” she said.
Nomaqhawe Mtebele
