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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’.

Wirtshausbrennerei Hans Krenn – Innkeeper and medal collector

Under the banner of ‘pure inn-keeping culture’, Martina Krenn spoils guests with products from this culinary region – authentic Waldviertel specialities and spicy horseradish dishes. And speaking of spice: distiller and brandy sommelier (in one!) Hans Krenn serves his brandies with these dishes. The spirits have won numerous high-calibre national and international awards since 1995. Indeed, a shower of medals is almost the company trademark.

The food and drink are served in the stylish stone pine lounge or guestroom with its tiled stove. In summer, guests can enjoy their meals in the garden. The programme features regular brandy sampling and tasting menus – to our luck there are more than enough peaceful and comfortable areas, including four well equipped gourmet rooms, and a spa area with sauna to ensure guests can indulge in full relaxation. Speaking of pure and clear: Hans Krenn only produces quality fruit brandies made from natural, organically harvested fruits. The majority come from the south of the Waldviertel area; the apricots and quality fruits are mostly from Wachau, while the wild fruit varieties are obtained from fruit traders and the surrounding area. The fruits are then carefully distilled in a copper vessel and subject to ongoing checks in a specially designed wood-fired distillery.

The Master Class Distillery 2022 received gold for Schlehenbrand (sloe brandy), Kriecherlbrand (Mirabelle plum brandy) and Zwetschkenbrand im Eichenfass (damson brandy in an oak barrel), and silver for Kren Gin (horseradish gin), Marillenbrand (apricot brandy), Kaiserholzbirnenbrand (pear brandy) and Rote Williams (pear).

Weingut Beate & Reinmund Reiterer: Versatile epicureans

Five generations of viticulture tradition, an inn and guest rooms – at first glance, it’s a normal Kitzeck vintner family. This is far from the truth, because the Reiterers practice a ‘winegrowing culture for the unconventional’, in a designed ambience with creative indulgences. In addition to traditional inn cuisine, Beate is keen on a contemporary interpretation, with high-quality products from the region such as trout mousse, raw venison ham, wild boar muffins and more. Reinmund’s passion is on the ‘liquid’ side. With their sensory awareness and internal sampling, they trained their three adult sons to become reliable partners when it comes to the evaluation of foods, wines and distillates. The latter have been produced for generations and also brought the winemaker and cellar master to gin: “Its multilayered and complex aspects, similar to a quality Sauvignon Blanc, attracted me from the very beginning.”

It started with a table still that a regular guest of the family had given as a gift years before. “A pharmacist’s scales for the dosages, a walk through the forest and a visit to a spice shop – that was it. After the first winter the table still remained in place, and in the second winter it became clear that I might be onto something. So I switched to a column still.” In the meantime, Distilled Dry Gin is produced using the pot still procedure, with time-consuming double distillation and a lot of manual work. The composition of 18 botanicals, along with the combination of maceration and percolation have one united aim: “Complexity! No aroma may be dominant, instead the gin should consist of a subtle whole!”

At the World Spirits Award, there was silver for Distilled Dry Gin.