“Do it! There is nothing more satisfying than following your passion. Focus on quality, find a niche and be bold.”
With these words of wisdom a trailblazer making her mark in the whisky industry motivates others with aspirations to pursue a career as master distiller.
Danielle Schoeman is making waves as the distiller and production manager behind a Helderberg company’s latest brand recently introduced to the local whisky scene and advertised as the unicorn of the distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash.
Toor Whisky is a celebrated collaboration between Redford Beverages and Dõna Distillery, which is owned by Schoeman. The whisky brand, aimed at challenging the expectation but respecting the age-old tradition, is made and taste-tested by Schoeman at the Montague Gardens distillery for the local producer, marketer and distributor of whiskies and spirits located in the Helderberg basin.
On a more festive note, a brand-new Toor variant called whisky aperitif – which means real whisky at a lower alcohol percentage with the added bonus of natural element (and in this case rooibos and camel-thorn) – was launched at the start of the month (December).
The Toor journey, according to Schoeman, started when Gerrit Wagner, founder of RedBev, searched for local distillers, stumbled across her contact details and picked up the phone.
“We started chatting and very quickly realised that we shared the same sentiment on whisky and the category,” she recalled.
Wagner, in turn, shared having conceptualised the idea of Toor Whisky more than three years ago and required a distiller to develop and realise it. “Danielle was an instant fit,” he declared, having established RedBev two years ago (post-Covid) and operating its offices at The Sanctuary shopping centre in Somerset West.
Shoeman recalled: “We first met about a year and a half ago before embarking on the process of product development and meticulously selecting every element which makes up Toor. A lot has changed since then, but we have learnt to be agile and able to pivot the business when needed.”
Her distilling dream was realised after drinking a shot of tequila while on a trip to Mexico, which reawakened her intriguing fascination with the drinks industry and production process.
“I was obsessed with finding out how to create spirits, understanding how one goes from a raw material to a beautiful liquid.”
To her sheer delight she started experimenting with an array of flavours and different wood components.
Asked what qualifications she has as professional distiller she jokingly replies “a lot of drinking”, before sharing that she actually studied finance and explained a lot of her expertise was self-taught through endless research, trial-and-error and on-the-job knowledge gained from industry experts, including local farmers on harvesting and growing botanicals, winemakers on different yeasts and fermentation and other distillers on the production process as well as the engineering and programming behind it.
And as a woman in a mainly male-dominated field, she is witness to a change as more women are bridging the gap.
“Some days can be frustrating when I feel like I have to prove myself before someone will take me seriously. And I can’t pick up heavy barrels, but realise that is why I have a fork-lift. Overall the industry is extremely supportive of women and there are some incredible trailblazing females changing the way that we look at distillers and the industry as a whole.”
While Schoeman distils most spirits including gin, rum and vodka, whisky is definitely her favourite to make and mature. What the Yellow Spot Irish whisky fan’s response is to non-whisky drinkers: “Whisky is not for everyone, and that is okay. With Toor we are trying to change the way that some people perceive whisky as a drink – you can mix Toor and enjoy it as a long drink or in a delicious cocktail. Whisky is not just a drink to be enjoyed in a cigar lounge on the rocks.”
Schoeman also expressed her love for working on more challenging spirit categories like tequila and non-alcoholic beverages, which taps into her creativity, and boasted with “a kick-ass”, custom-built vacuum still among the only in South Africa.
“Whisky, as a category, is definitely changing and going through a modernising phase,” she said.
“Just in the last couple of months, legislation in SA has changed to now allow for a whisky aperitif category, meaning you can bottle at a lower alcohol strength with added natural elements. There are some amazing new and creative whisky products out there that are pushing the boundaries of the traditional idea of the drink – and I am here for all of it.”
Wagner shared hopes for putting SA on the map as a whisky destination second-to-none. “Unlike other countries, we have what it takes – great skill, superb grains and the perfect climate and excellent products!” he declared.
