Lynda Gilfillan
DRINK
That exotic margarita you’ve just knocked back may well have come from the Karoo. Tequila is being made in a great white barn of a building outside Graaff-Reinet and is exported to Europe. Agave Distillers, a partnership between South African and French investors Rockwood and Hines, is pioneering the distilling of tequila from locally-grown Blue Agave plants. It is the only tequila manufacturing facility outside Mexico.
A bacterium and fungus have attacked whole plantations of agave in Mexico, threatening the entire Mexican tequila industry. Agave Distillers is jumping through the window of opportunity that has blown wide open. There is a seven-year recovery period for the plant and the distillery has already started to locate bulk buyers of tequila in the United States, Europe and Mexico.
Since opening last August the factory has exported two containers of tequila to Europe and hopes to clinch a contract for several more containers a month. Managing director Henri Berthe says a sample of the product was recently approved by US clients who “found our product superior to the best tequila found in America”.
Mexican tequila is made from Agave weber, but factory manager Roy McLachlan says the Blue Agave Americana is being used to make the popular brew locally. “We’ve been concentrating on getting production quality up to standard and have so far spent $1-million on plant and equipment.”
The French partners have provided two biochemists from France who are working on the product. They’ll eventually train local staff to work on the fermentation and distillation process, maintaining quality and getting production levels up. Bulk exports are the aim and McLachlan says the bottling process will eventually follow. There is a problem with using the name tequila on the label, though the name “Agave Blue a subtle blend of tequila” is on the cards.
The bulky white factory buildings on the N9 are something of an eyesore in the foothills of the Sneeuberg. Amid the area’s flimsy-looking farm fences, the huge security gate with its sentry box and warning signs, including a “full search of vehicles and persons”, seem especially out of place. But McLachlan says the factory is pioneering a process for the fermentation of the Blue Agave that it hopes to patent.
This is the only manufacturing facility outside Mexico where cooking, fermentation and distillation occur. The product is 100% agave and 40% proof and with its subtle, new flavour may well fill the gap in the burgeoning market, particularly in the US. Demand in the 1990s increased 400% in five years, and at El Agave, America’s top tequila bar, a shot of the best tequila sells for $145.
“We’re doing clandestine, cutting-edge stuff here,” says McLachlan, “and all our staff sign a secrecy agreement.”
This is serious stuff, it seems, as the 45-strong local workforce is warned that they could lose their jobs if they become “security risks”.
As sheep farming has given way to game farming in recent years, planted fields of Blue Agave hint at another source of income for cash-strapped local farmers, nine of whom currently supply the plant to the factory. The Blue Agave was first brought into the area in the 1830s, and because it is rich in nutrients and sugars it has been traditionally used as a stock feed in droughts. But this blue gold may provide an unexpected bonanza to farmers.
Unlike Mexico, where the shortage has resulted in agave rustling and the hijacking of trucks transporting the plant, South Africa offers safe growing opportunities. And traditional drinks such as beer, and brandy and coke may soon be replaced by exotic cocktails on stoeps in the desolate Karoo landscape with its long vistas, blue hills and spreading fields of Blue Agave.