When Robin Knox-Johnston sailed singlehandedly around the world back in 1969 without stopping, five-six pm every afternoon would be his happy hour. “I’d huddle in the cockpit and pour myself a dram, light up a cigarette and do my thinking for the day” he recalls. “It kept me going sometimes, that having something to look forward to.” On that occasion, he sailed past Cape Town but had stopped by four years before when he sailed his yacht Suhaili, built in Bombay, back to Blighty. “She had 7½ tons of teak in her, real 1½ inch stuff. Cost a fortune then and would be totally unaffordable now.”

Robin Knox-Johnston

Sir Robin (he was knighted in 1995), global brand ambassador for Benromach whisky, now has a sponsor for his happy hour as his ambassadorship comes with the allocation of 96 bottles of product a year. “But what am I to drink after March?” he asked Gordon & MacPhail Chairman David Urquhart. “I have an aunt who turns 103 in December and she puts this down to her daily dram.” While RKJ was sailing around the world and into the record books, one of the whiskies poured last night at Bascule Bar in the Cape Grace Hotel was just beginning a 41 year maturation in first fill Oloroso Sherry casks.

Discovered by Gordon & MacPhail in the dusty reaches of the distillery they bought from Diageo in 1998, the 1968 vintage spirit was bottled six months ago, after over 40 years playing Rip van Winkel in oak. It retails in the UK for around £300 a bottle. On the nose, Masala with a dash of Balsamic. The dry palate is fairly tannic with flavours of orange peel and dried fruit and the aftertaste is cold tea.

The evening’s main event was the SA launch of the Benromach 10 year old whisky being imported by Tops at Spar and expected to retail around R400 a bottle. A step up from the traditional Benromach, it is all fruit and chocolate on the nose and palate with a dash of peat and a full, rich mouthfeel.

Sir Robin is staying at the Table Bay Hotel. “We started out in some prison at the Waterfront, but the Table Bay offered us the same price so we moved.” On the weekend, he will unveil a statute to SA’s most famous yachtsman, Bertie Reed. “We called him lelike bobbejaan (ugly baboon)” he recalls “because he was so ugly with a maniacal grin. But he was an amazing yachtsman.” As the Benromach flowed, the salty old sea dog was full of stories and held members of Jonathan Miles’ Whisky Academy spellbound. “You don’t appreciate the tourism potential of yachting” quoth Sir Robin, and listening to his yarns, few in the audience would disagree.

Bascule DJ and Sir Robin

Related posts:

1. Black Labels Order a Black Label in Bascule Bar at the Cape...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.