A gin tasting near Tzaneen offers a useful change of pace after a morning in the mountains or a wildlife outing. The Old Packhouse Distillery is situated on a farm near Tzaneen and produces handcrafted small-batch gin. For travellers interested in local producers, the appeal is not simply drinking gin; it is connecting the finished product to a distillery in the agricultural landscape around town.
What is The Old Packhouse Distillery?
The distillery's official site says it produces artisanal gin on a farm near Tzaneen using carefully selected ingredients. Its current range includes several different gin styles and fruit-led expressions. Independent local destination coverage has also documented on-site tasting experiences focused on the production process and a selection of the distillery's gins.
Do you need to book a tasting?
Treat advance arrangement as the safe default. A distillery is a working production site, and visitor access, tasting times and group capacity may not match normal retail opening hours. Hotel@ offers both a Tzaneen Gin Tasting Package and an Old Packhouse Distillery Tour Package. Use the live package pages to choose the format that matches the experience you want and to confirm the current inclusions.
What should you expect?
A good distillery tasting should help you understand differences between the products rather than rush through samples. Ask whether the current experience includes an introduction to the distilling process, how many gins are tasted, and whether food or mixers form part of the session. Those details can change, so confirm the exact format attached to your booking.
Who is it best for?
The experience suits adult couples, small groups and travellers interested in local food-and-drink production. It also works as a lower-physical-intensity activity after canopy touring, hiking or a long drive. It is not an appropriate activity for anyone who will be driving if they intend to consume alcohol.
Plan transport before the first tasting
Do not decide who is driving after the session starts. Arrange a designated driver or suitable transport in advance. If a Hotel@ package or tour arrangement includes transport, check the package details carefully rather than assuming it is included; the current Hotel@ tour data should be the source of truth for that booking.
How to combine a gin tasting with a Tzaneen day
Use the tasting as the final booked activity, not the first stop before a day of driving. A strong sequence is a morning wildlife or Magoebaskloof experience, lunch, then the tasting. Another option is to make it the centre of a slower food-focused afternoon after checking in at your hotel.
The couples' guide to Tzaneen and the food and farm experiences guide show other ways to build around local producers.
Old Packhouse versus Zwakala Brewery
These are different reasons to travel. The Old Packhouse is a gin distillery near Tzaneen; Zwakala Brewery is an independent craft brewery in Magoebaskloof. Choose based on the product and route you are interested in, or visit them on different days rather than turning the weekend into a tasting marathon.
Stay nearby
Hotel@Tzaneen provides a town base for the distillery and other local experiences. The broader Tzaneen activity hub can help you pair the tasting with a non-alcohol-focused attraction.
Before booking
- Confirm the current tasting format and duration.
- Ask whether advance booking is compulsory.
- Check age requirements and identification requirements.
- Plan transport for anyone consuming alcohol.
- Confirm what is included in any package before arrival.
A local tasting becomes more useful travel content when it is treated as part of the destination's producer story, not just as a bar stop. The Old Packhouse gives visitors a direct connection to a product made in the Tzaneen area.