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Polini Distillates: From Italy around the world

As one of the biggest corporations in the D&B sector in Italy and one of the largest in Europe, the company manages an extensive portfolio of own brands and premium brands that are sold in over 50 countries.

The Polini Group Italia was founded in 1967 between the towns of Bergamo and Brescia as a family enterprise. It has adapted to market trends over the years, growing and
changing without losing its character. Knowledge of artisanal manufacturing procedures was coupled with highly modern automated production. Since the beginning of the 1990s, trade brands have been pushed which have brought the company to a leading position in the market, with more than 150 brands registered in Italy and about 20 further brands in 35 countries worldwide. In recent years, the focus has shifted to exports, concentrating on major brands and targeted investment in marketing and advertising. To support the constant growth of the markets, investments have been made in technologies and infrastructures, with the aim of covering the whole production process independently. The two Italian locations were merged into one plant in 2009, conceived with a focus on logistics and process automation. Apart from business management, administrative and trade offices and a research and development laboratory, it comprises a production plant with a capacity of 150,000 bottles per day and a logistics platform. Today 25 to 30 million bottles are produced per year.

At the World Spirits Award, gold was awarded to MySpritz, Limoncello Liberty, Higuana 12, Sambuca Iseo and Glen Forest. Silver was awarded to London Burning, Xo Brandy Riserva 14 anni vecchia rovere, Shamrose and Proud Irish Single Malt.

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’.

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.