World-Spirits Online Guide Abo – order now

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’.

Georg Hemmeter – XUXU, Escorial, SILLA EL FUERTE

Georg Hemmeter – strawberry drinks with exceptional flavour guaranteed

The name Georg Hemmeter – a company of the Underberg Group – stands for innovative spirits, in particular the XUXU range. The fresh and fruity strawberry drink contains 66 percent fruit plus crystal-clear vodka, rounded off with a dash of lime. The harmony between the sweetness of the fruit and just 15% alcohol by volume is created using a special production method. XUXU Ten, the little luxury in a 250 ml aluminium bottle with only 10% alcohol by volume, is dressed to party – it is still relatively new to the market, yet is already at home in all the world’s top party venues.
XUXU can be served in so many different ways: chilled, neat, on crushed ice, as a dessert topping, with sparkling wine or with other mixers – XUXU tastes heavenly and offers fresh and fruity pleasure. Welcome to Berrydise!

Initially the absolute top star in Greece, XUXU is now also number 1 in Russia, and extremely popular in Turkey and Italy too.


XUXU Strawberry & Vodka Drink and XUXU Ten won Gold at the World Spirits Award 2014.

Matheus Pálinka – Fruit brandies based on ancient Hungarian traditions

Matheus is a model sophisticated Hungarian company and its products bear the “Hungaricum” title of honour. Only fruits grown, harvested and distilled in Hungary are used in the distillates. “Pálinka” – the colloquial term for schnapps – has a long-standing tradition in Hungary as the climatic conditions produce very flavoursome ripe fruit.

The history of Matheus Pálinka began with a booklet which emerged at an auction. And what secrets did it contain? As long ago as the 16th century, Franciscan monks in the northernmost corner of Hungary (now the Szatmár-Bereg administrative district) were producing high-percentage fruit brandies which they refined to create healing essences using herbs and spices. The production of the modern Pálinka products is based on these old recipes which form part of the country’s culture and authentic Hungarian gastronomy.

The brandies in the ranges “Matheus Spirit” (60% vol.) and “Matheus Classic” (50% vol.) are left to mature in mulberry wood casks for at least three months, which emphasises the silky flavour and the aroma of the fruit. The “Matheus Fruits” (44% vol.) are unfiltered distillates matured on a bed of dried fruits, combining modern technology with old traditions. The wide range of products includes apple, apricot, elderberry, cherry, plum, quince, sour cherry, blackthorn, blackcurrant and Williams pear.

For the 15 samples submitted, Matheus received four golds and eleven silvers at the World-Spirits Award – ranking 13th in the fruit brandy category as a Master-Class Distillery.