Bottle of the Week: Oude Molen XO Cape Brandy How much and where?R800; www.oudemolen.co.zaWhy?There is a battle under way for the soul of South African brandy and the phony war is over. At issue is the difference between pot-still spirit, produced in traditional copper pot stills, and industrial spirit from continuous stills (which may or may not be blended with pot-still spirit).Oude Molen GM Andre Simonis sums it up. "There is widespread confusion in the market regarding different sub-categories as defined in the legislation: blended brandy, vintage brandy and pot-still brandy."On the shelf all these different segments compete under one category: 'brandy'."It is the brandy world's version of the whisky wars between single malts such as Glenmorangie versus blends such as Johnnie Walker Black Label.By plumping for a regional classification (Cape) rather than a production methodology (pot-still), Oude Molen targets regional identity (or terroir as they say in the wine world).This 10-year-old-plus blend of 100% pot-stilled spirit is the top of the line. On the nose, it's flowers and fire while on the palate it's oily apricots and mango.It could be the big gun to reverse the 40% fall in brandy sales over the past five years - an alarming trend the Brandy Foundation tried to tackle with brandy cocktails in pop-up designer bars: a strategy that failed as punters prefer their litchis distilled rather than bobbing around in tall glasses like eyeballs. Rating: **********: Winston Churchill****: Richard Burton***: Ernest Hemingway**: Frank Sinatra*: Jean-Claude Juncker..