"With the award, we not only want to draw attention to the high-quality fruit brandies, whiskies and gins from our district, but also to the great importance of the orchards: These shape the landscape of our district and must therefore be preserved at all costs," said the head of the district administration.
As part of the fruit brandy award, two commissions with a total of six testers tested a total of 63 distillates, 31 of which were awarded prizes. The high-caliber group of testers from the Small Distillers and Fruit Distillers Association consisted of testers Frank Bartholomäi, Hans-Peter Möll, Jürgen Fritz, Ernst Heubach, Ulrich Weippert and the former royal highness and distillate queen Vera Buhlinger. "We have stored a database of flavors that has to be trained again and again. This allows us to determine the exact differences between the brandies in terms of intensity, smell and taste," says Bartholomäi, describing the work of the group of testers.
In the end, eleven products made it to the final round, including stone fruit, pome fruit and marc brandies. The group of testers chose the quince water from the Alfred Ziegler distillery in Großbottwar as the best brandy in the district. The best Williams-Christ pear brandy this time came from Gerd and Michael Kinzinger from Berghof in Vaihingen an der Enz.
District Administrator Allgaier stated: "The quality of the brandies has risen sharply in recent years: Compared to previous years, consumers expect significantly higher quality products."
The testers were also particularly pleased with the gin and whisky samples submitted, almost all of which were awarded a certificate.
In the fruit brandy award, the following participants received certificates for their respective distillates:
Großbottwar, Alfred Ziegler distillery - quince water
Ingersheim, Steffen Seitz fruit distillery - Rhenish bean apple brandy, raspberry brandy, plum brandy from the mulberry barrel
Löchgau, Herbert Rath - Lemberger pomace brandy
Marbach, Destille an der Stadtmauer Andreas Stiegler - Quince brandy, sour cherry brandy, herb spirit, nutmeg pomace brandy
Markgröningen, Brennerei Dieterich GmbH - grape marc brandy, quince brandy, Zibärtle brandy
Remseck am Neckar - Neckarrems, Tobias Koch - quince brandy, mirabelle plum brandy, pear brandy from the mulberry barrel
Remseck am Neckar, Andreas Müller - plum brandy, quince brandy Ispolinskaja
Steinheim, Daniel Blank - plum brandy, grape brandy from the barrel, Williams Christ Edelbrand, marc brandy, raspberry brandy
Vaihingen an der Enz, Gerd and Michael Kinzinger - Williams Christ brandy, medlar brandy, Muscat marc brandy, Réservée marc brandy
Whisky and gin
Murr, Bühler distillery - The Spirit of Friedrich Schiller whisky
Sersheim, Fesslermill 1396 Distillery - Mettermalt Whisky, Single Malt Whiskey VfB Stuttgart Edition, Mettermalt Distilled Swabian Dry Gin, Mettermalt Rum
District Administrator Allgaier then handed over the 6,000 euro donation from the stand operators to Felix Gratz, head of the Martinushelfer project. This is a project run by Caritas and the Kreisdiakonieverband, which has been in existence in Ludwigsburg-Eglosheim since 2018. In an upcycling sewing workshop and in cooperation with the "Fair-werter Hoffnung" campaign of the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese, old clothing donations are turned into new products and resold. The project enables up to 18 people affected by long-term unemployment to approach the job market in a protected environment by rebuilding an everyday structure and gaining lost self-confidence through a meaningful activity. The donation from the stand operators will be used for new machines and to equip the sewing workshop.
