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Southern Champion Distillery – Visionary, creative, unusual

The founding of the company in 2010 was unconventional: it was the result of a Master’s final project – and today BuzzBallz is one of the leading ready-to-drink beverages in the USA. Once an alcoholic drink industry outsider, they now use the same, unconventional concept to put a new line of spirits on the market. Southern Champion wants to lead in the sectors of bottling, production and marketing of spirits.

The enthusiastic family team focuses on creating a sense of family and promoting their vision at the company’s offices. This is evident in creative details, such as the colourful walls or slanting windows. The offices are air-conditioned, and every day a full-time chef prepares lunch for everyone, there are massage days – and success is celebrated together. In short: the company has personality, and this can be seen in the brands, the buildings, and also in the employees.

In brand policy, high quality is paramount, and special attention is paid to the unusual style of the bottles and labels – and the products have a reasonable, fair price. The brands, which are tasteful in every respect, have a story to tell: of lifechanging people and places, and invite you to take a journey to them, to share the vision.

At the World Spirits Award, there was gold for XIII Kings Vodka, Pelican Harbor Light Rum, Pelican Harbor Dark Rum, Crooked Fox Blended Bourbon Whiskey, and silver for Andrew John's Gin.

Gut Schwechow - Fruit from the estate's own plantations

This manor is located 40 kilometres south-west of Schwerin, in the Mecklenburg Elbetal nature park, and has a history dating back hundreds of years. At the start of the 1990s, Gut Schwechow was taken over by beverage entrepreneur Richard Hartinger and re-gained its historic size of around 1,100 hectares through land purchasing. In addition to the agricultural activities which take place here, the site is also home to a fruit distillery, farm shop, training workshop for fruit juice technicians, a fruit must museum and much more to support the positive future development of the company.

Gourmets will find everything their heart desires at the farm shop: speciality sausages and meats from animals reared or hunted on site, freshly caught eels, trout and char from the site's own lakes, fruit jams, preserves and honey, as well as a wide selection of alcohol-free drinks, liqueurs, spirits and brandies. The crowning glory of the range are the Schwechower fruit brandies which are distilled in the first licensed distillery in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

The raw materials grow here in one of the oldest fruit-growing regions of Germany. The apple brandy made from three varieties is a regional speciality that comes from the company's own plantations in the Elbtalaue region. Similarly, only the very best home-grown fruits are used for the yellow plum, cherry and prune brandies. The climate in western Mecklenburg is influenced by the Baltic Sea and is characterised by alternating cool nights and warm days which gives the fruit a striking aroma when combined with the long maturing time. Pineapple, banana and carambola from the company's own plantations in Costa Rica add a dose of exotic flavour. Premium products made from rosehip, rowanberry, service tree and wild cherry fall under the "Platinum" label and are sold in hand-blown bottles.

The apple brandies were awarded gold at the World-Spirits Award, as was the sour cherry. The pear and yellow plum brandies received silver, and likewise the blackthorn and sea buckthorn spirits.

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.