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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’.

The Sweet Potato Spirit Company: Spirits from the sweet potato

Everyone knows the sweet potato as a side dish to a juicy steak, but who would think of it as a basis for a high-quality spirit? First, someone has to have the idea, and then they have to somehow raise this rather ‘modest’ root vegetable to a higher level. To give the orange pulp a fiery character, a few ‘tailor-made’ ingredients are needed, of course. This British company in Worcestershire produces spirits with spirit. Each product starts its journey on the farm, where only the best sweet potatoes are harvested by hand. In further processing, the experienced distillation team combines the methods passed down through generations with modern techniques. The wide-ranging product range impresses even the most discerning of gourmets.

For the mild Moonshine (with which everything began), vanilla, peach and apricot peel and a dash of caramel blend well. For the aromatic Spiced Rum, ginger and lemon blossom create the freshness, then cherry and peach round it off. The exhilarating Orange Gin Liqueur combines London Dry with cane sugar and orange zest. The fruity Raspberry Gin Liqueur is juicy with a delicate raspberry aroma. The Lavender Gin Liqueur has a distinctive character of freshly picked lavender. The London Dry Gin is characterised by fresh juniper notes with a touch of coriander. The smooth vodka gets a gentle aroma with vanilla and a hint of lemon. There’s no doubt that the colourful spirits are also fun to mix.

At the World Spirits Award, there was gold for Gin Krishna, and silver for Espresso Rum Liqueur and Honey Moonshine Liqueur.

Vánagandr – Great quality from a small business

This is a real cottage industry, as the distillery in Cambre in the north-west of Spain only covers 200 m². This doesn’t mean, however, that the strict regulations and legally required controls for the spirit industry don’t apply here. The company is of the highest standard: distillation is based on old Galician traditions and carried out over direct heat in a copper boiler from the best Portuguese coppersmiths, with a few modern modifications.

The alcoholic base for the London Dry Gin comes from triple distilled wheat of only the best quality. This also applies to the carefully selected botanicals: juniper, angelica root, Cassia cinnamon from Indonesia, orris root from Eastern Europe, coriander seeds, orange and lemon peel from Spain, cardamom from Guatemala, nutmeg from Indonesia, liquorice from Turkey, Ceylon cinnamon and a few other secret ingredients – as with all gin producers. The water that is used for the entire production process is one of the best drinking waters in the whole of Spain. Distillation takes place very slowly, over about 12 to 14 hours, which means a total of only about 440 bottles a day. Filling, sealing, labelling, signing and numbering is done manually. “I mostly work alone, although sometimes my wife helps me since we don’t have anyone else at the moment. This means that absolutely everything that is in these bottles has passed through my hands”, says director Enrique Pena. Not only these bottles are in a class of their own, the especially designed label also catches the eye with a mythology-inspired motif.

At the World Spirits Award, there was gold for Vánagandr London Dry Gin.