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Absintissimo – An unusual distiller career

René Wanner used to be a police detective in Geneva, these days he is one of the most well-known absinthe distillers in Val-de-Travers, the traditional region of production in the Swiss canton of Neuenburg. Just like all the people who live there, he can tell many stories about the colourful history of the “green fairy”. Once taken as a medicine, it was later marginalised and then, in 1908, prohibited. Only since 2005 has absinthe again been produced legally. René Wanner revives ancient recipes, distils slowly according to olden specifications and only in small amounts. The result is very aromatic, yet mild and agreeable. A lot of effort is necessary: for 3,000 bottles you need about a ton of wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), in addition to large amounts of green aniseed and star aniseed, mint and balm, coriander and fennel, hyssop and liquorice.

Aside from his talent as a distiller, René Wanner also has a talent for promoting and selling his products. He greets his visitors to the sounds of an alpenhorn, he also learnt yodelling after retirement, and he guides the degustations multilingually: in German, French, Italian and Swiss-German. This is accompanied by anecdotes from moonshiner times – and also, on request, by dishes refined with absinthe from his small kitchen. As a member of a gastronomic brotherhood, he naturally keeps the recipes very secret. The icing on the absinthe cake are the originally designed bottles.

At the World Spirits Award, the absinthe range impressed the judges: gaining gold for La 68…harde, Bleue à Fernand, Bloody Fairy, Cinquante & Une, La Cavassonne, La Fée de la Rade and La Fée Verte, as well as silver for Bleue Bacchus and De Bleu de Bleu.

Pap és Pap – Family business with a burning passion

At the end of 2009, a dream came true for Szabolcs, Marcella and Gergely Pap – they opened their own family distillery in Etyek in the wine-growing region of the same name, some 30 km from Budapest. The small team of six manages one of the country’s most modern quality distilleries. The choice of the family coat-of-arms as the company logo symbolises the strong family ties. The production process is characterised by its regional roots and the distinctive flavour of the fruits, most of which they grow themselves. The product range comprises apple, elderberry, cherry, apricot, Williams pear, raspberry, sour cherry, peach, strawberry, blackberry, plum and grape. The products can be sampled following a tour of the plant in the new tasting cellar which holds up to 60 people.

The fresh fruits are delivered by the lorry load and are stored in the cellars where they are protected from the sunshine, rain, wind and dust before being processed just a few hours later. All of the production stages take place underground in rooms protected from temperature fluctuations, with the exception of the distilling. The fruits are washed and the cores, stems, stalks and leaves removed before being machine-chopped and pumped into an acid-proof agitator tank for the homogenisation process to begin. From this point onwards, they no longer come into contact with human hands. Following cooled fermentation in steel tanks, the substance is distilled in a technologically sophisticated plant. The fine distillate is stored in a tank for six months while special varieties are stored in wooden barrels made from various woods.

At the World Spirits Award, Pap was classified as a Master Class Distillery 2012. There was gold for the Apple Mutzu (2 x), Grape Irsai Olivér, Plum, Apricot (2 x) and Blackberry. Silver medals were awarded to the Apple Jona Gold, Grape Szürkebarát (2 x), Plum (2 x), Pear Williams Yellow (3 x), Strawberry and Black Elderberry (2 x). Bronze went to the Apple Jona Gold, Cherry Sour and Raspberry.

Stock Polska – Prestige products with history

Polmos Lublin (known today as Stock Polska) was founded by the industrialist Emil Plage in Lublin in 1906 and was able to survive both world wars and the communist state leadership. The company was nationalised in 1948 and re-privatised in 2001. It traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange until 2005 and was sold in 2006. The new owners, Oaktree Capital Management, purchased the spirits division from Eckes Stock in 2007 and thereby laid the foundations for the current Stock Spirits Group. The company has its headquarters in Luxembourg, its service centre in Great Britain and its production sites in the Czech Republic, Italy and Poland.

Stock dates back to the year 1884 when Lionello Stock founded a beverages business in Trieste. He purchased a distillery in 1920 in what is currently part of the Czech Republic with the aim of tapping into new markets. This was followed by distilleries, bottling plants and warehouses in Italy, Austria, Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia. In the 1920s, Stock was one of the biggest companies of its kind in Europe.

After an absence of 70 years, Stock returned to Poland and began to manufacture at the historic site of Lublin, 150 kilometres south-east of Warsaw. Intensive investment led to the creation of the most modern distillery in Poland and a leadership position on the vodka market. Poland’s most popular flavoured vodka is produced here: Zoladkowa Gorzka.

Lots of Stock products are produced by traditional recipes. These classical brands appeal to connoisseurs all over the world. In return, work is constantly being done on innovations that correspond to modern tastes and new drinking cultures. Quality standards are constantly upheld in both areas, of course.

The quality of the products was recognised at the World Spirits Award with a gold medal for the Orkisz Spelt Vodka.