The first thing you notice on meeting Caroline Snyman (35) is her poise and quiet, understated self-assurance. Tall and willowy, she carries herself with simple, feminine grace. But she has no need to trade on her flawless, unadorned beauty. She has better things to do, fuelled by an insatiable curiosity that first sparked in her high-school chemistry practical classes, when “explosions and beautiful colours introduced me to the creative possibilities of science”.
Her single-minded desire to understand and know more, saw her become the youngest member and, until recently, the only woman on Distell’s executive management team.

Since the age of 29, she has served as the JSE-listed company’s business director of its spirits division that includes a portfolio of specialty, mainstream and popular brandies, whiskies, other brown and white spirits and liqueurs. Flagship of the portfolio is the richly decorated Van Ryn’s Collection Reserve range of luxury brandies.

A chemical engineering graduate from Stellenbosch University, her fascination with wine and brandy prompted her to explore how the choice of base wine used to make brandy would impact on its aroma, flavours and mouthfeel, earning her in the process, first a Master's degree and then a doctorate in wine biotechnology.

Along the way, she has become a Cape Wine Master, a brandymaker and a dressage champion. Not to mention a wife to Coenie Snyman, winemaker at Rust en Vrede and mother to two-year-old Claudia.

Caroline is the daughter of German immigrants. She spoke German at home and English at school and then began a social life in Afrikaans on the Stellenbosch campus. Now she switches effortlessly from one to the other without skipping a beat.

How does she navigate her way through such a demanding life that requires frequent international and domestic travel, the call to make specialist business and technical presentations, judge in major competitive spirits events, manage an extensive team of technical, marketing sales and logistics specialists and create a loving home?

She answers with one word: “Balance.” But when you press her, she concedes that the balance itself is underpinned by rigorous discipline and the need to make quick but very considered decisions.

“I try to be analytical in my thinking, breaking down every situation into its component parts. I’ve also learned that you can’t solve everything yourself. You develop a rapport with those around you and pool your skills and resources, to generally arrive at better solutions. I also rely heavily on instinct.”