Meet the women who kick-started SA's craft gin revolution

Lorna Scott is considered to be the woman behind South Africa's craft gin revolution. When she launched Inverroche Gin in 2012 in Stilbaai with her son Rohan and daughter Lauren, she had never worked at a distillery before, or had any experience in the liquor industry.

She said: "But if you have a passion for something, which in my case is telling a story by making gin, you can achieve anything with hard work ... and you can have a career change in your mid-50s."

Scott was the first to infuse gin with fynbos, creating a new category in the local and international liquor industry. Her passion for sustainability has led to a successful eco-friendly business where 70% of the staff are local women and the entire gin-making process is symbiotic with the environment.

"From the start, it was never just about the gin. I wanted to create a product that tells a story and fynbos was the inspiration.

"There are world-renowned archaeological sites close to our distillery with traces from hundreds of thousands of years ago of how man survived on what the ocean and plant life provided. Our gins represent the story of sustainability, of heritage and of mankind that's unique to the southern coastal region and Africa."

Scott started experimenting in 2007 using a small 1.7-litre copper pot still, christened Mini-Meg, distilling her way through different fynbos species to develop her recipes.

"Distilling is in my blood, but I never planned to make it a career. My mother distilled pineapple beer in her pressure cooker. The small copper pot still I discovered on a trip to Italy reminded me of her."

Scott spent years understanding fynbos and eventually narrowed her selection to 35 species. "We made three gins each with their own distinctive taste and colour profile."

Each gin is infused with a different combination of fynbos. The Inverroche Classic is infused with fynbos harvested from the limestone-rich hills and cliffs; Inverroche Gin Verdant with fynbos selected from the mountainous, rocky terrain; and Inverroche Amber from fynbos scattered along the dunes.

The spirits are triple-distilled in small batches. Each distillation coaxes the aromatic oils, aromas and flavours from the flowers, berries, roots and citrus suspended in custom-made baskets beneath the helm of the still. Then they are bottled, labelled and numbered by hand. 

• This article was originally published in The Times.