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Klippenziege: New era in the world of gin

In December 2015, four friends captured the ‘spirit’ of an idea: they were thinking about gin. Nearly a year later a small batch was bottled by hand. The individuality of a gin lies in the combination of the botanicals, in this case it is the exotic selection: mate tea, goji berries, physalis and a hint of rose. The Klippenziege is a New Western Dry Gin, in which juniper plays the main role amongst the other botanicals.

It is produced in the Habbel Distillery, which guarantees excellent quality thanks to its experience – it was established in 1878 and is now in the family’s fourth generation. The former Korn distillery in Sprockhövel with adjoining farmland is now the largest fruit distillery in the Ruhr region, as a traditional manufacturer it stands out with its attention to detail. The entire manufacturing process at Klippenziege can also be observed on-site.

The bottle and the label are also special. Designer Levent Aydin drew it carefully by hand, and then digitalised it before perfecting it. First it is printed, then coated, then stamped and embossed. The elegant result stands for friendship, solidarity and love. Working together in a friendly and familiar atmosphere connects people with a passion for life who share one important belief: that the product should encourage people to slow down, allowing for mindful enjoyment.

At the World Spirits Award, there was silver for Mate Dry Gin.

Diageo – From London to the whole world

Approximately 33,000 employees are employed worldwide at Diageo, the market leader in premium spirits, with Smirnoff (vodka), Johnnie Walker (whiskey), J&B (Scotch whiskey), Baileys (liqueur), Captain Morgan (rum), Cuervo (tequila) and Tanqueray (gin), Guinness beer and branded wines. Production takes place all around the world: from Great Britain and Ireland, Italy, Spain and Africa, to the USA, Canada, Latin America, Australia, India and the Caribbean. The global corporation emerged in 1997 from the merger between Guinness and GrandMet. 180 markets around the world are handled from its London headquarters.

A lot of work and lots of attention to detail go into creating the in-depth product descriptions on Diageo’s website. Information and analysis is provided about issues ranging from detailed descriptions of the production down to the most minute ingredients. Finally, they are aware of the size of their company and also of their responsibilities as a supplier of alcoholic products. The name Diageo was also deliberately chosen – it represents their agenda. Put together from ‘dia’ (the Latin word for ‘day’) and ‘geo’ (the Greek word for ‘world’), it means that every day people are celebrating all over the world with products from their company. These products open up possibilities never dreamed of for special days and nights, marking special life events and even making the smaller things in life feel magical.

Participation in the World Spirits Award was magical: there was double gold for Tanqueray No. 10 (Spirit of the Year 2016), gold for Gordon’s London Dry Gin and Tanqueray London Dry Gin, as well as silver for Tanqueray Rangpur.

Turku Distillery: Enthusiasts on the way to an ideal vodka

Two engineers, Tapio Järvenpää and Jari Varjo, came up with the idea of their own vodka as they were sailing through the Turku archipelago. They felt that there were not enough handcrafted vodkas and that the market was going in the wrong direction with more and more filtering methods. They wanted a vodka where they could easily say what it consisted of and how it was made. “Charcoal belongs to the barbecue, sand to the beach, silver to the table, platinum to the catalytic converter and diamonds to jewellery. None of these are required for making vodka, unless mistakes are made in the selection of raw materials or in the production process.” With the engineers’ love of precision, the bar was raised high. Along with acquaintances from various professions – Pasi Kuronen, a foodstuffs and marketing professional, Sami Halinen, an IT and process technician, and Petteri Rosenberg, a gastronomy expert and retailer – they founded the company in 2020.

Kaiho Single Estate Organic Vodka is a handcrafted, unsweetened, unfiltered organic vodka from the southwest of Finland. The entire production takes place within their own facilities. From the outset, their own vodka with a 96% basis was produced: SSWB (Spirit of Southwest Breeze) made of local organic winter wheat, ground on-site, mashed and fermented, and then distilled in a high-quality 20-step column still. It is diluted to 40.2 percentage by volume with crystal clear water from a natural spring 50 kilometres away. Production is climate-neutral; with emission-free electricity, heating through an organic power plant and the processing of by-products to organic energy.

At the World Spirits Award, silver was awarded to Kaiho Single Estate Organic Vodka.

Leibwächter: Herbal bitters with 58 herbs

Leibwächter is a traditional product made in Austria. The highest quality herbs from all around the world are cold-macerated with precision and the essences from them are processed to a unique elixir with over 145 years of experience of the Mozart Distillery in Salzburg. Leibwächter contains macerates of medically valued herbs such as mallow, wormwood, lesser centaury, sloe, angelica, rosemary and many others.

In this process, the ingredients are covered in alcohol, macerated for two weeks and then distilled in a vacuum distillation process. In this way, high quality is guaranteed. Leibwächter is mostly sold in 0.04 litre bottles at supermarket checkouts and, on average, more than ten million bottles are sold per year.

At the World Spirits Award, there was gold for Leibwächter.