World-Spirits Online Guide Abo – order now

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.

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.

Carpenè Malvolti – Sparkling wine specialist with a sideline in distillates

In 1868, Antonio Carpenè laid the foundations for the internationally successful company it is today. The champagne enthusiast was convinced that he would be able to produce a similar cult beverage with the local Glera grape, harvested from the wine hills around Conegliano and Valdobbiadene. That this has been accomplished for almost 145 years is confirmed by the huge popularity of the sparkling wines and the high export percentage of 56%. Although 5% of production is of distillates in the form of brandy and grappa, they only form a small segment of the business next to the 95% made up of sparkling products. However, they are just as successful due to the long experience in the distillation industry since 1868.

In 1972, Etile Carpenè joined the company and became the fourth generation to take over its management. He has always had the same passion for the mixture of tradition and progress, as well as being the great innovative impulse behind the continuous success of the company. The company’s headquarters are located in the famous wine town of Conegliano in Veneto, about 40 kilometres to the north of Venice. A second winery is in Follina in the middle of the Valdobbiadene region. Here, besides the well-known DOCG Prosecco Superiore, distillates are also manufactured, and they are only released onto the market after a long maturing period in oak barrels.

At the World Spirits Award, there was gold for Brandy 15 anni, and silver for Grappa di Prosecco.

Hofbrennerei Oberkorb: Pure brandies exclusively

Andreas Franzl’s small farm distillery is located between Munich and Mühldorf near Dorfen. He picks wild fruits and the best fruit from the region’s meadow orchards with trees of over 100 years of age to create the basis for highly aromatic fruit brandies with a terroir character. Only pure brandies emerge from the farm distillery. They are of incomparable elegance and owe their depth and harmony to over 20 years of maturation in some cases. Flagship products include old varieties of apple and pear, European wild plum and quince, complemented by brandies made from extremely rare fruits such as danewort, guelder rose or red elderberry. The brandies are long established in the top restaurants of Bavaria and beyond.

Andreas Franzl, Master of World Spirits and brandy sommelier h.c., can draw on the tradition of a wonderful farm with over 400 years of history. He has shown courage, openness and foresight regarding the status and value of pure fruit brandies in the spirits industry. More than 800 distillers from all over Europe have now completed his distilling and sensory courses. He is an advisory board member and lecturer for sensory analysis at the Genussakademie Bayern in Kulmbach, and is heavily involved in the conception and implementation of the fine brandy sommelier qualification. With his son Georg, a budding Master of World Spirits, the next generation is already on board to lead the distillery into the future with its famed consistency of quality.

As of 2026, this will be commercially integrated into the new bonded distillery. The new barrel store also matures whiskies distilled from the farm’s own barley and honey brandies from the farm’s bees. Not to mention beer brandies and fruit brandies, some of which are aged in ash barrels from the farm’s own forest.

At the World Spirits Award, this World Class Distillery 2026 won Gold for several spirits: Roter Weinbergpfirsich (red vineyard peach), Wachauer Marille (apricot), Himbeerbrand aus Waldhimbeeren (wild raspberry), Hausapfel (apple, cuvée of old varieties), Hauszwetschke – in Johanniskreuzeiche (damson, matured in oak barrels).