Aaron Pieterse

The Climb

Training at St John's College and the University of Cape Town gave Aaron Pieterse a formal base before he entered industry. That background was followed by work as an employee at Sasol, then by a secondment to wood consultancy on Sasol projects, at WOOD consultancy. Together, those roles point to a working education in process and precision, with each step adding discipline to the way things are made. Today, Aaron is co-founder of Primal Spirits Distillery (since 2025), carrying those earlier experiences into a business built as much around identity as production. The sequence is straightforward: school, university, industry, secondment, then enterprise. What emerges is not a sudden leap, but a measured build toward a distillery shaped by attention and by place.

Today

"It started with two friends in a lecture room." That is how Aaron Pieterse describes the beginning, and the line keeps the scale of the project clear. Primal Spirits Distillery did not begin with spectacle; it began with conversation. In Johannesburg, that modest origin has become a distillery with a defined sense of where it sits and what it is trying to make.

Signature

Aaron's signature wines include Applewood Gin and Primal Lemon Tonic (PLT). Together, they mark the distillery's register: concise names, direct presentation, and a style that reads as clean in concept. Applewood Gin and Primal Lemon Tonic (PLT) sit within the broader language of Primal Spirits Distillery itself.

In Their Words “That mattered. The chance to build something here, for this city and for South Africa, felt deeply personal and aligned with what we wanted our work to represent.” Taken together, those lines frame the work in terms of place and purpose rather than promotion. They place Aaron Pieterse inside a project that is local in base and outward-looking in ambition, with Johannesburg not just as address but as part of the product's meaning.

Recognition

The chance to build something here, for this city and for South Africa, felt deeply personal and aligned with what we wanted our work to represent.