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Kasinger Fruit Plantation – The best from the farm

Everyone knows that ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’. The Kasinger family’s greatest wish is to grow and sell fresh fruit as naturally as possible. A wide range of their fruit is used in various ways: from fresh fruit to juice to jam and schnapps and liqueurs. The farm in Burgkirchen, Fuchshofen 4 – with the farm name ‘Fuchshofer’ – has been in existence since 1532. These days, the second generation of the family runs an agricultural enterprise with an emphasis on fruit cultivation and the farm shop. Since 2011, their new passion has been refining quality fruits into distillates.

In the new distillery, it is mostly traditional, classic fine brandies which are created, but they also produce soaked fruit schnapps and liqueurs using their own raw materials. The great advantage is that the fruit is ripe and can be processed ‘still warm from the sun’, because it is grown directly on the doorstep. The wide variety of fruits includes apples (20 varieties), damsons (8 varieties) and pears (6 varieties) – dried as ‘Kletzenbirnen’, a regional speciality. There are also apricots, nectarines and peaches, cherries and sour cherries, grapes, rowanberries, redcurrants, chokeberries and nuts. Their work of all year is then refined by distilling.

The First Class Distillery 2019 received gold for Cherry Brandy, and silver for Rowanberry Brandy, Apricot Brandy, Williams Pear Brandy, Apple "g'mischter Satz" and Raspberry Brandy.

Elephant Gin: Drink something good. Do something good.

Inspired by the flora and fauna of Africa, handmade Elephant Gin is developed from selected African herbs, roots and fruits, including buchu and baobab, together with fresh apples from northern Germany. Since the first bottle was sold, 15% of the profit per bottle has been donated to projects for protecting African elephants – one million euros in 2022.

The story of how the gin was created is not only based on a passion for gin. On their travels, Tessa and Robin Gerlach were captivated by African nature and recognised the need to protect it. Poaching, trophy hunting, ivory trading and the loss of habitat greatly endanger that. Back in Europe, they decided to make a gin in order to call attention to the plight of the elephants. The gin stands for German quality, African spirit, and sustainability.

Six core products meet different tastes. The subtle hint of juniper and the nuances of mountain pine give Elephant London Dry Gin a complex, gently floral aroma. Elephant Sloe Gin is a fruity, modestly sweet liqueur. Those who like something more intensive should opt for Elephant Strength Gin. Its fresh aroma and higher amount of botanicals are ideal for cocktails. Elephant African Explorer Gin combines buchu leaves, white ginger and Monodora nuts with citrus, mint-cassis and herbs. An energy boost is provided by the Coffee Liqueur made of Elephant Aged Gin, coffee distillates and cold brewed Arabica coffee. The ready-to-drink Elephant Gin Negroni combines vermouth and bitters for slight acerbity.

At the World Spirits Award 2025, there was Gold for Elephant Strength Gin, and Silver for Elephant London Dry Gin and Elephant African Explorer Gin.

Luding Group: Vodka Tchaikovsky as a high-spirited homage to the famous composer

At the beginning of the 1990s, the modern distillery ‘Fortuna’ was launched in a green field in the south of Russia – in the Krasnodar region, a strip of land with spa resorts and health centres. The distillery has specialised in unusual products, in a region with a particularly green fingerprint. The vodka created in honour of the great Russian composer Tchaikovsky is special. The concept for this exceptional product is comparable with one of his musical scores: the work ‘Swan Lake’ served as an inspiration. Art enthusiasts can thus immerse themselves in the history of Russian estate life in the 19th century. The traditional white and blue colours underline the purity of this vodka.

The technical particularities span a wide quality-orientated spectrum: from the selected wheat, their own well water and the special treatment of the distillate with skimmed milk powder to the crystal-clear filtration with active birch coal. With so much perfectionism and monitoring of the individual production steps, the result is an especially gentle, animating and very typical vodka based on wheat. After the diluting of alcohol and pure distillate, the production process is continued with maturation in steel tanks. The aim is to ‘wed’ both ‘waters’, resulting in an especially harmonious vodka.

At the World Spirits Award 2022, Vodka Tchaikovsky was awarded double gold and honoured as the best vodka with the title ‘Spirit of the Year’.