Many moons ago, according to local legend, a woman used to sit on the stoep of the old Drostdy Hotel and recount amusing anecdotes to anyone within earshot. And when one of those majestic Karoo thunderstorms suddenly falls on Graaff-Reinet, one really wants to be in the Cigar Lounge of The Drostdy, celebrating the rains with a Cuban Cohiba, a couple of single malts and a few pages of a leather-bound tome on African explorers.

After its extensive two-year facelift back in 2015, the historic hotel is back as one of the Karoo’s grande dame establishments. It has, however, been upgraded to suit the modern luxury traveller or executive businessman jetting in (the local aerodrome has been jacked up for this very thing) for some high-powered Karoo trade. 

More than half the staff complement is sourced from the locally based SA College of Tourism. Top graduates come here for a full year’s internship before being let loose on the world of high-end accommodations.

Read in Daily Maverick: Graaff-Reinet I — the Gem-Quality Town that speaks its own language and celebrates its history in style

The Cigar Lounge is also part of the original Drostdy, the office and dwelling of the town’s magistrate, built back in 1804 when Graaff-Reinet was still wild, woolly and awash with many brands of dodgy hard liquor.

Withond, a very special kind of liquor with a very special back-story. Image: Chris Marais

A whiff of Withond

There was a time when Graaff-Reinet was a serious drinker’s town, with a thriving wine and brandy industry amidst thousands of thirsty frontier people.

When the authorities tried to close the canteens, the system of the “sly grog shop” became popular. If you had booze to sell, you just opened your window and did commerce with the passing street traffic.

Author CG Henning says in his landmark book titled, Graaff-Reinet – A Cultural History:

“Beyond any doubt, Graaff-Reinet could proudly boast of its Withond brandy, of having the cheapest liquor, the greatest sales possible and the greatest number of drunkards in the country.”

Withond was distilled from the highly sugared Graaff-Reinet grape out on the smallholdings in the south of town. The Withond “moonshiners” would station a young boy in a tall tree to watch for raiding police officers. In turn, the police would have a man with binoculars on a hillside observing activity on the plots below.

Sometimes, a Withond producer would let loose a couple of warning shots in the general direction of the lookout hill in question and the constable would beat a timely retreat.

One can now buy Withond quite legally in Graaff-Reinet – produced and sold by Reinet House Museum. 

The Graaff-Reinet Club, where locals gather in numbers on Friday nights. Image: Chris Marais

The Graaff-Reinet Club  

One doesn’t see many Old School gentlemen’s watering holes in South Africa these days, so in certain ways, the Graaff-Reinet Club is a bit of a dinosaur. But it’s a beloved dinosaur and it comes complete with more than 250 current members, an exotic military history, all sorts of eccentric wall hangings and three enormous snooker tables. And, these days, women are welcomed in the precinct.

Run your fingers over the surface of the long bar counter and you’ll find spots where the wood has been repaired. Those are probably the bullet holes made by trigger-happy Coldstream Guards on the day the Anglo-Boer War was finally declared over.

The Guards officers had the run of the Graaff-Reinet Club during the war after a 600-man contingent was sent to protect The Gem from the marauding ways of Cradock’s General Kritzinger. The legendary Boer commander occupied Nieu Bethesda instead.

Not so long ago, one of the late-night pub specialities at the Club was a devilish drink called The Dolphin. The Browning machine gun shells were filled with brandy and lined up behind the bar. The idea was to dive head-first over the bar, lift the alcohol-filled shell without using hands and toss it back. Every successful Dolphin is said to have been recorded in a book.

The annual Stoep Tasting festival in Graaff-Reinet, where wine-lovers and wine-makers meet on Karoo porches. Image: Chris Marais

Stoep Tasting festival

Graaff-Reinet’s Gordon and Rose Wright have made the logical connection between the twin Karoo leisure occupations of wine-drinking and stoep-sitting.

The annual Stoep Tasting event began humbly back in 2014 with five Western Cape winemakers parked on various guest house and restaurant stoeps in Graaff-Reinet, selling their wares to 45 enthusiasts. Today, thousands of wine lovers meet many different winemakers and craft beer outfits on the leading stoeps of The Gem of the Karoo. 

The event takes place late in May when there is a brief hiatus on the estates. The grapes are all in and pressed, the vines are about to be pruned and the wine is barrelled and bottled. It’s a wine maker’s time to meet and greet the world.

The weather generally plays ball. The days are sunny, ideal for drinking chilled white wine and beer. The nights, however, are crisp, cool and perfect for red wine by the fireside.

The chaps from the Winelands speak of their products with passion, deep knowledge and, occasionally, down-home humour. When guests visit the guys who make Boplaas and Fledge & Co wines, they will say this about their tasty Tinta Barocca:

“Boet, it goes down like a rat up a drainpipe…”

Graaff-Reinet has its own donkey cart manufacturing business. Image: Chris Marais

Donkey business

The Eastern Cape Karoo is going through a bit of a donkey boom at present. And with donkeys come their donkey carts. In fact, visitors can now enjoy a grassroots experience by clopping through some of our villages on the back of a donkey cart.

The rising price of fuel is only aiding their cause. Engela Kruger, who started GDE Leather in Middelburg, says she’s noticed a distinct uptick in demand for donkey harnesses.

“Instead of sending a farmworker with a bakkie to look for the ostrich eggs out in the veld, they’re now sending a donkey cart. We’re producing a lot of donkey cart harnesses.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: Donkey wars and the Green Revolution

Another local legend as far as donkey stories go is Andries “Perd” Smit from Graaff-Reinet. Now retired from the donkey cart industry, Smit says a donkey is so smart one can train him up in less than a week.

He started a business making carts of all sizes, training donkeys and selling them as a unit, complete with harnesses. His family has continued the tradition. We once visited Smit & Co for a photo shoot. Inspanned and pulling the cart were the donkeys, Mens and Blouberg, with Jonathan Bantom (aka Rooi Jan) and Henry van Tonder (aka Kraan) at the reins. “Perd” was particularly proud that Rooi Jan could train a donkey within four days – so well that it could easily be instructed to halt at stop streets. DM