The House of Van Ryn’s, which is internationally acclaimed for producing some of the world’s best potstill brandies, received two new accolades from local tourism authorities for operational excellence in conferencing facilities.
Staff at the Stellenbosch-based Van Ryn’s Distillery are celebrating the renewal of their five-star grading from the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa in the meetings, exhibitions and special events category, as well as being named a provincial winner in the same category at the 2015 Lilizela Tourism Awards.
It is the seventh consecutive year that Van Ryn’s conferencing facilities have held a five-star rating from The Tourism Grading Council of South Africa. “This is the highest level attainable and we take the council’s annual feedback to heart and work hard to raise the bar a little higher each year,” says Van Ryn’s Brand home manager Fre-Nay Brown.
The brand home has two boardrooms available for any type of business function or event. Presenting a sophisticated yet comfortable atmosphere, the boardrooms can cater for up to 15 and 30 people respectively and include the latest audio-visual presentation technology which is designed to turn any engagement into a memorable experience.
The distillery, built in 1905, is over 100 years old with many of the original buildings built from stones gathered in the Eerste River and still in use today. Visitors and delegates will be able to go on what is officially recognised as the “World’s Best Distillery Tour”, and have the rare pleasure of tasting the Van Ryn’s 12 year old Distiller’s Reserve brandy which was awarded the Best Worldwide Brandy accolade at the International Wine & Spirit Competition earlier this year. Finally, Van Ryn’s was also named by the New York International Sprits Competition as International Brandy Producer of the Year.
“We are proud of the awards given to all our various offerings at the Distillery as this reflects our attention to detail at all levels, from brandy-making, to entertaining and educating guests, to offering a professional conferencing facility. These two awards come at the end of an exceptionally successful year and will help motivate the staff as we enter our peak tourism season,” Brown concludes.
