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.

MBG International Premium Brands – Brands with added value

“We Love Liquids.” This slogan has accompanied MBG on its worldwide path of success since it was founded in 1993 under the name P.O.S. Marketing + Vertrieb GmbH: Strong brands have been established around the world in nearly 60 countries, with innovative own brands, renowned retail brands, great ideas and a lot of energy. With over 250 employees, the MBG Group currently generates over € 200 million and, every year, more than a million hectolitres are produced. The portfolio in Germany includes 12 own brands and 6 retail brands (from non-alcoholic drinks to low proof drinks to wines & spirits) for 90,000 customers.

“Our recipe for successful brands is the mixture of passion, conviction and knowledge of the market. If all goes well, names and products become new worlds which consumers love. Success is not always predictable, which means that courage is needed above all. The right moment has to be found and hard work put in, just like with a hit single: some are one hit wonders while others become classics.” Little can be added to this definition from Managing Director Andreas W. Herb. From the MBG Group headquarters in Paderborn, a great deal of expertise makes successful brands, tailored to the respective target group and the market segment. Many brands that are well known on shop shelves and in the gastronomy sector have played a role in the history of the company.

Participation in the World Spirits Award yielded gold for Dos Mas Nasty Nuts Shot.

Organic Juniper: Purism for true gin lovers

Sometimes it seems as though many distillers have forgotten what gin is all about. Why else would we have all these complicated aromas that don’t just sing, but shout? This is the view at Juni Gin Lab in Nottingham, the place to be for dedicated gin fans – an exclusive location with a carefully stocked bar. As well as their own Juni gins, there are innovative cocktails, wines, beers, ciders and alcohol-free drinks to choose from.

The ‘lab’ can tell you about the history of gin, about Juni 93 and its home in Serbia, as well as offering an insight into distillation techniques, mixing and harmonising botanicals for home recipes that can be produced in traditional copper stills. Of course, there are also tastings and even a Cocktail Master Class.

With Juni 93, Alyasir Mendly, Sales Manager at Organic Juniper, together with the Master Distiller, Tom Masters, has put an original London Dry made entirely with natural ingredients on the market. Made with hand-selected, Serbian organic juniper berries from their own land in the highlands of Pest at nearly 5,000 feet above sea level. And, instead of transporting the berries all the way to England, they have settled in Serbia to meet the locals and to get involved in all the work, from picking to sorting to distilling.

At the World Spirits Award, there was silver for Juni 93 London Dry Gin and Juni 93 Cask-Aged Gin.

Manufaktur Jörg Geiger: Passion and perfection – Swabian virtues

It’s not usually recommended that you pick and bite into a piece of fruit picked from an old orchard – ‘räs’ is how the Swabians describe the intense, tart flavours of these tannin-rich fruits. But this is ex-actly what they are looking for at Manufaktur Jörg Geiger, because these pronounced aromas are ideal for the production of distillates, sparkling wines, alcohol-free PriSeccos or the newest product: !WEHMUT, an apple vermouth wine.

The northern landscape of the Swabian Alb is characterised by the tall, old trees and is home to a va-riety of herbs, shrubs and blossoms. In production, these precious raw materials are understood and valued, and this is why the Don’t Call me Gin from the Swabian Alb contains, besides juniper, an addi-tional 77 different botanicals.

Century-old fruit varieties and special plants such as woodruff, meadowsweet and yarrow don’t thrive everywhere, but require specific conditions and specific amounts of sunlight and shade. These can be found in sparse, deciduous forests or an extensively sustainably-farmed orchard. There is nowhere this is better understood than in the hand-picking of single origin harvested fruit. The walk through the orchard teaches how to see the stages of the year in a new light, and is an inspiration for exciting combinations of fruits, herbs and aromas. And the work at the distillery allows you to experience first-hand that the old varieties are a rare commodity and something very special – as is the space where they grow.

At the World Spirits Award, there was double gold for Goldparmäne Apple in bourbon barrels, gold for AG – Don’t Call me Gin, and silver for BP Pear Wine with Pear Brandy and matured in Sauternes bar-rels and !Wehmut.