ROBERT SOBUKWE TOWN – Rocco Torro, a specialist agave distillery in Robert Sobukwe Town (formerly Graaff-Reinet), recently received a series of significant awards recognising the quality of its spirits and the innovation behind its distillery.
Collectively, the distillery has received five major national and international awards during 2026, demonstrating that premium, world-class 100% African agave spirit can be created under the Karoo sun.
At the 2026 South African Food and Beverage Awards, held recently in Stellenbosch in partnership with the eighth annual Aurora International Taste Challenge, Rocco Torro entered three expressions from its premium 100% agave range, all of which were awarded medals.
The French Oak Reposado was awarded Double Gold, while the American Oak Reposado and Blanco each received Gold.
This recognition follows two honours at the 2026 MEA Business Awards, where Rocco Torro was named Best African Agave Spirit Distillery 2026 and received the Craft Distillation Innovation Excellence Award 2026.
Together, the five awards mark an important milestone for a South African distillery that has spent years developing premium agave spirits with a distinctive African identity.
Rocco Torro is one of the continent’s pioneering premium 100% agave spirit producers, with every bottle rooted in agave grown under the African sun in and around Robert Sobukwe Town.
Here, in the demanding semi-desert conditions of the Great Karoo, these remarkable plants spend between 12 and 20 years maturing before they are carefully selected and harvested, giving the spirit an unmistakably African provenance, a spirit shaped by time and place.
Every stage of production is managed from field to bottle at the Graaff-Reinet distillery.
From harvesting and cooking to fermentation, distillation, maturation and bottling, the complete process is guided by a commitment to quality, authenticity and consistency.
The process tells the story of how African-grown agave and the landscapes of the Great Karoo are shaping a distinctive new South African spirit.
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