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Edelbrennerei Friedl Mair – Fruit classics from a professional amateur distiller

In the small community of Flaurling in the Inn Valley, between Innsbruck and Telfs, lives a successful amateur distiller. He discovered his love of spirits over 25 years ago – and this has now become his great passion. Friedl Mair started out with a small licensed distillery which has been successively expanded and enlarged over the years. Investment in modern technology has given rise to a high quality bonded distillery. Further training and curiosity eventually transformed a hobby into a profession! Success did not take long to come and Friedl Mair is now the proud recipient of numerous awards for his products – as well as winning the Tyrol State Prize twice.

His product range of around 50 items is based on ripe, high quality fruit: from pip fruits (especially apples, pears and quince) to stone fruits (in particular damson and as a cigar brandy, apricot, cherry, sour cherry, sloe, greengage and Mirabelle plum) as well as berries (cranberry, rowanberry, elderberry, raspberry, jostaberry, strawberry and juniper berry), pomace and grape marc and specialities such as gentian, carrot and Jerusalem artichoke. Following processing and distillation in the distilling column, these ‘treats for the taste buds based on traditional Tyrolean fruit distilling’ are left to mature in glass balloons. The brandies are sold in hand-painted bottles and on request can be packaged in gift boxes and wooden boxes.

Participation in the World Spirits Award brought classification as a Master Class Distillery 2013. There was gold for the quince, berry cuvée and muscatel grape and silver for the Williams red and damson cuvée.

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.

Aldi Ireland: Gin and whiskey in retail

Aldi Ireland has several top products in its spirit range: Boyle’s Gin from the Blackwater Distillery and Ardfallen Whiskey from the West Cork Distillery, in addition, Mo Chara Passionfruit & Mango Gin from the Old Carrick Mill.

The Blackwater Distillery has been an Aldi partner since 2016 and developed the private label Boyle’s Gin exclusively for the Irish and British retail market. The product volume of the Blackwater Distillery for Aldi has risen strongly in recent years, whereby 140,800 bottles of the gin series were sold in 2018. The successful gin brand is manufactured in Blackwater Valley, West Waterford, with selected imported ingredients as well as regional apples, blackcurrants and elderflower. CEO Peter Mulryan – former TV producer and author of the book ‘The Whiskeys of Ireland’ – explains, “The partnership with Aldi has helped us to increase turnover enormously, and also to have the security to invest and expand. This includes on-site bottling facilities and a visitor centre.” Ardfallen Whiskey from the West Cork Distillery got its name from the region in County Cork where the malted barley comes from, and is only manufactured in small batches. The business was founded in 2003 by childhood friends who started out with only two small stills they had bought in Switzerland. Now the largest distillery in the country, it currently employs over 80 staff and exports to around 70 countries.

Beim World-Spirits Award 2025 gab es Gold für Ardfallen 10 Year Old Whiskey, Dúchas Irish Whiskey, Silver für Ardfallen Triple Cask Whiskey, Boyle‘s Sloe & Damson Gin, Dolmen Honey Moonshine.