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Roust Hungary – Affordable luxury on the spirits market

Roust was founded in 1992 by the Russian businessman Roustam Tariko and quickly developed into a leading business group in the sale of premium spirits brands, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. As the second largest vodka producer in the world, they sell over 27 million 9-litre crates in more than 80 markets every year. Roust owns production plants and distribution facilities in Poland, Hungary, Russia and Italy. The comprehensive portfolio includes the flagship vodka brands of Russian Standard, Green Mark, Parliament and Zhuravli, as well as the legendary Polish vodka, Zubrówka.

Thanks to its extensive knowledge in sales and marketing and its commitment to responsible alcohol consumption, Roust Hungary has developed to become one of the leading suppliers on the domestic spirits market. The second-largest premium spirits company in Hungary also sells the Royal, Russian Standard, Gancia, Grants, Jägermeister and Metaxa brands.

For years, Royal Vodka has maintained its position as the most popular and well-known vodka brand in Hungary, and also remains market leader in terms of volume and turnover. Royal Vodka is produced using natural ingredients, from the grain to the well water, which contributes to its mild taste.

At the World Spirits Award, there was gold for Royal Hazelnut, and bronze for Royal Plum and Royal Blackcurrant.

Seven-Spirits – Attractive products with tradition and a future

Under the umbrella of Seven-Spirits there is already a collection of the finest spirits, and the portfolio is constantly being expanded to offer customers a broad choice of well-known brand-named products from all over the world. The main focus is on the search for attractive products for the future as well as reliable partners, as company director Dirk Verpoorten points out. With HirschRudel, a herb liqueur has come onto the market which has its roots with his grandmother, Elly.

In a large suitcase from her estate he found a poetry album in which she had carefully written down the recipe. Fascinated by his discovery, he tried it out and was thrilled with its taste, which is based on a unique mix of 31 different herbs. These are only macerated cold for four weeks, to retain all aromas. Maturation takes over six months – unusually long for a herb liqueur. The bottles are filled and labelled by hand and are sold in limited very small amounts.

At the World Spirits Award, the herb spirit received a gold medal.

The Ziegler fine fruit distillery is one of the sales partners of Seven-Spirits, and with their excellent products they also held a strong hand at the World Spirits Award: double gold was awarded to Aureum 1865 Cask Strength, there was gold for G=in³ Classic, and silver for Aureum 1865.

KWV – From small cooperative to global player

KWV was founded in 1918 as a small cooperative of wine-growers, Ko-operatieve Wijnbouwers Vereniging van Zuid Afrika. The aim was to stabilise and structure the emerging wine economy in South Africa and to help the producers to have a secure income: harvest sizes and minimum prices were determined, quality standards established, marketing measures pooled. Nearly all the wine-growers in the Cape quickly joined, whereby the largest winemaking cooperative in the world came into being. The many brand name products from KWV have international standing these days and are present in over 100 markets, with the focus on Scandinavia, Germany, America, Japan and South Africa.

Until the early 1990s, when the world markets opened up to South African wines, KWV played a central role in regulation of the sector. Since that time, it has developed into a global player that exports award-winning wines and spirits from the main cellar in Paarl to all over the world. KWV enjoys a reputation of the highest quality, from the first brandy production in 1926 to consistently ensuring international top spirits.

The World Class Distillery 2019 received double gold for Cruxland (Spirit of the Year 2019), and gold for Imoya, KWV 10, KWV 15, KWV 20, KWV 12, KWV 3 and KWV 5.

Schneeberger – Gin from Southern Styria

At the Schneeberger vineyard in Southern Styria, wine has been produced since 1870, and is now in the hands of the family’s fifth generation. The excellent farmhouse tavern shows off the hosts’ many skills, with diverse regional products and homemade products of the highest quality. These range from farmhouse bread to dry-cured juniper ham. And gin is just the thing to go with it. As well as traditional ingredients such as juniper, ginger, oranges, pepper and coriander, it also contains some very special regional botanicals such as Leutschach hops and Sausal lavender – a total of 27 different herbs, spices and fruits.

Some of the ingredients grow in the herb garden on the estate, others grow wild in the countryside. Follow-ing several days of maceration, some botanicals are extracted during distillation in copper pots, in order to give the gin its typical character. Following distillation, it is stored for a few weeks in stoneware containers. Finally, the gin is diluted to drinking strength with very soft spring water. So as not to endanger the complexi-ty and fine aromas, it does not receive cold treatment, merely a rough filtration before being filled into bot-tles. “We are a Batch Distillery, that means that each batch, which is distilled, is filled separately and without being blended. In this way, there are subtle differences from batch to batch”, explains Johann Schneeberger Jr.

At the World Spirits Award, there was gold for Mirabelle Plum and Apple, and silver for Gin.