World-Spirits Online Guide Abo – order now

DiGusti: Quality products from Italy to the Netherlands

Foods and beverages from Italy are the focus at DiGusti, founded in 2010 by Ingmar Berkhout. The driving force from the beginning was his great passion for food. He began with 20 products and today DiGusti is one of the largest Italian products wholesalers in the Netherlands, with more than 200 products from small manufacturers in Italy.

The company helps small farmers to sell products from their home country abroad. Quality and purity are very important when it comes to determining the range of products. The online shop is a real A to Z of Italian delicacies – from antipasti and balsamic vinegar to olive oil and truffles to ‘zoete lekkernijen’ for those with a sweet tooth. They all have a tale to tell about how Italian food has traditionally been enjoyed.

The recipes for the spirits are developed by DiGusti along with the producers. For the Limoncello, Feliciano exclusively processes big lemons in a little town on the Sorrento coast, while the Limoncioccolat by Marco is produced in a village in the mountains on the Amalfi coast.

At the World Spirits Award, there was gold for Limoncioccolat, Limoncello and Mandarinello.

KWV Brandy continued its great legacy in 2023

The roots of locally produced brandy on South African shores can be traced back to 1672. KWV Brandy has developed into a well-known name that has symbolised stability, quality and values for generations. With meticulous double distillation in copper stills and maturation in pristine French oak barrels, they always strive for perfection. The fascinating selection of brandies is a sensory journey of discovery that begins with the three-year-old KWV and continues with the nuances of KWV 5, 10, 12, 15, and crowned by the exquisite KWV 20.

Brandy, liquid history in a glass, tells of tradition, craftsmanship and enjoyable times. KWV Brandy stands for a century of consistent commitment by pioneering thinkers, visionary producers and entrepreneurial leaders, as well as for its remarkable versatility as a leading, multi-award-winning company. Since the first international award in 1981, its position in the brandy arena has been reconfirmed time and again. In 2022, KWV Brandy was honoured as the best brandy producer in the world at the prestigious International Spirits Challenge (ISC) under the leadership of renowned Master Distiller Pieter de Bod. KWV is synonymous with brandy in South Africa. With unwavering support from the wider KWV family, they eagerly look forward to another century of excellence.

The Master Class Distillery 2024 received gold for KWV 20, KWV 15, KWV 10, KWV 5, KWV 3, Imagin Classic, Imagin Citrus and Wild Africa Cream, silver for KWV 12 and KWV VS, and bronze for Cruxland Black Winter Truffle and Cruxland Kalahari Truffle.

Schwarze & Schlichte – Brand personalities from Westphalia

The family business Schwarze & Schlichte from Westphalia has been representing the highest quality spirits for the last 345 years with a distinct range of national specialities, regional traditional brands and successful international innovations. This top quality is based on a distilling tradition acquired over centuries which has been passed down over twelve generations. Even today, distilling and maceration still take place at the company’s own distillery where plenty of time and skill are invested. The selection and processing of the best raw materials and continuous control of the production process ensure a consistently high quality. One factor for success is the ongoing brand management in accordance with the specific requirements of the various brand personalities.

Three Sixty Vodka is one of the purest and mildest vodkas in the world. A fourfold distillation process ensures tangible softness and exceptional clarity while the purity of the vodka is all down to the time-consuming “Diamond Filtration” process: the finest filters are used, set with crystals like diamond dust, to remove even the smallest of suspended particles from the distillate. Even the packaging is unique: the facet-cut bottle of pure white shiny glass sets off this premium vodka to perfection. A black velvet label completes the sophisticated design.

The Grappa Bianca from Scavi & Ray is characterised by its full-bodied balanced flavour with powerful and intense aromas of marc. This crystal-clear brandy is soft and deliciously balanced thanks to the exquisite skill of the master distillery. The intense and fruity aroma is reminiscent of the sun-soaked vineyards in Italy.

Both products received a silver medal at the World-Spirits.

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’.