World-Spirits Online Guide Abo – order now

Family of Hounds – Sought and found

Andrea Frigerio and his English wife, Lina, live in Monaco with their two dogs, Spot and Magda, two wonderful additions to the family. Since they started taking the two for walks in town, they have made many new friends. Andrea and Lina used to be red wine drinkers, who spent their holidays in the wine hills of Italy and France. It was only in 2013, while visiting a country estate in England, that they discovered their love for a good G & T. This developed into a passion, and their discussions soon revolved around what it would be like to create their own gin.

They tasted intensively, discarded aromas they didn’t like, and extracted the aromas they did. Together with the master distiller in an old distillery in Piedmont, they created their recipe for the gin: juniper, lemon and orange peel, pink grapefruit, lavender, thyme, cardamom, ginger and coriander. The first three ingredients come from Italy, the rest from Asia. “The juniper is really loud, like a brightly lit disco floor, and the other botanicals dance around it. Together, they are like a lively, attention-seeking dog that can’t sit still.”

In the future, they are looking to establish a small family of spirits, from gin to vodka and from grappa to vermouth – unmistakable in taste, but accessible to everyone. The core of the philosophy is going out with good friends, enjoying a good meal and even better spirits. The first step has already been taken …

At the World Spirits Award, there was double gold for Family of Hounds Gin.

2B Hemp Gin: Styrian gin experience

Two visionaries, Armin Breinl (doctor, drink creator, musician) and Wolfgang Thomann (gin maker), have created a completely new gin experience with real hemp powder: 2B HEMP GIN (inspired by AEIJST). On 17th November 2018, the two invited guests to the first tasting of 2B HEMP GIN in the AEIJST GIN distillery in St. Nikolai in the Sausal Valley.

Made from organic juniper berries, this innovative gin has an impressive, mild and fruity taste and a typical hemp note. Due to its unique aroma, it not only tastes good neat, but also creates a ‘wow’ effect in cocktails – as proven in the long drink Styrian Pale Gin AEIJST refined with 2B HEMP.

For thousands of years, hemp has been grown as a valuable plant, be it for rope, fabric, paper or as an active ingredient in ointments and tinctures. Hemp has always been highly valued for its medicinal properties, yet recently has been demonised as an addictive drug and has suffered under its ensuing prohibition, originating in the USA. These days hemp is regaining importance and is being used more as a luxury food as well as in medicine as a therapeutic agent.

The Lifestyle Trading company, run by Armin Breinl, is an innovative beverage producer, which is already known amongst trade professionals for its sugar-free ‘func- tional fruit drinks’. The drinks have a high fruit content (more than 50 per cent) and additional natural, vital substances and have an energising, relaxing and regenerative effect.

At the World Spirits Award, there was silver for 2B HEMP GIN.

Onder de Boompjes – Genever from south Holland

The history of this distillery dates back to the year 1658. At that time, the Steffelaar family began to produce Genever and Korenwijn in Schiedam. In around 1700, herring fishing was finally replaced by the malt spirits industry. Numerous workers from Brabant and Germany flocked to the town in south Holland close to Rotterdam. In 1883, 3,500 inhabitants were dependent on this industry and the town was home to the biggest plants in the world. During this boom period for the Dutch gin, there were numerous mills in and around the town and no fewer than 400 distilleries. ‘Onder de Boompjes’ is continuing this tradition today and only uses the best natural ingredients for its genever, vodka and liqueurs.

The product range includes the young, mild genever ‘Boompjes Premium’ (10% malt wine, distilled 4 times, 35% vol.) and the traditional old genever ‘Bompjes Old Dutch’ (20% malt wine, stored for 3 years, 38% vol.) for which the recipe took a whole year to produce. The range also includes the Oseven vodka, a premium traditionally produced vodka with no additives (3 days of filtration, 40% vol.), the Sylvius gin based on a very old recipe and Generum, a blend of old genever and rum. When it comes to the recipe: the company website includes a few cocktail tips for mixing the spirits as a change to enjoying them straight.

At the World Spirits Award, the ‘classic trio’ of vodka, Genever oude and Genever jonge proved medal-worthy and won three golds.

Pussanga: Inspired in South America, handmade in Germany

A liqueur as mysterious as its name: the recipe contains pomegranate, the love apple of mythology, ginger and chilli, cardamom, bourbon vanilla and aphrodisiac plants from South America with the Indian name Pussanga. The root was discovered by the natural product chemist Petra Spamer-Riether in the Peruvian jungle when she was collecting medicinal plants for a scientific project.

Pussanga is a high-proof liqueur: it is fruity, subtly spicy and slightly bitter. On its own, it is a high-quality digestif thanks to its high cardamom content, and it also offers many creative possibilities for extravagant cocktails and aperitifs. The spirit is produced by HS Heidelberg Spirits GmbH by hand at Gut Schwechow in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. Following Petra Spamer-Riether’s recipe, the plants from all over the world are manually macerated in stages for 14 days, then filtered several times and stored. Each bottle is filled and labelled by hand. The fine liqueur was already one of the 100 most innovative spirits in the world at Cocktail Spirits Paris in 2015. Pussanga has now celebrated its tenth birthday, as a new batch with a balanced spiciness. There was a magnificent creation for the occasion: Tropical Negroni – Pussanga and rum. Over the past ten years, three more exceptional products have been created in the search for that special botanical: Schrödinger’s Cat Gin with catnip in 2017, Destiller’s Cut with clary sage in 2019 and Anna Famosa with peach and spicy roses in 2021. The Anna Famosa recipe dates from 1900 and is based on family botanical experience.

Pussanga won silver at the World Spirits Award.