A family fruit distillery in Langweiler in the western Palatinate, whose history goes back to a still first recorded in 1906. From the fruit of its own meadow orchards, 211 trees kept under contract nature conservation, Helmut Braun makes single-variety fruit brandies, cask-matured plum brandies, Walnussgeist, a Weinbrand, gins and fruit liqueurs.
- Raw materials
- Fruit from the distillery's own meadow orchards — 211 well-kept trees of many varieties, among them apple varieties such as Goldparmäne, Roter Trierer Weinapfel and Rheinischer Bohnapfel, Pastorenbirne, Glantaler Gelbbraune perry pears, Mirabelle de Nancy, house plums and medlars — tended under contract nature conservation for meadow orchards and species-rich grassland.
- What makes it distinctive
- The still has stayed in one family since its first record in 1906, passing from Peter Bender to his grandson Alfred Braun in 1950 and to Helmut Braun in 1985; today a Holstein still with a 145-litre pot and column, set up in 1999, distils the family's own fruit, and the fruit brandies carry no added flavourings or sugar. Several brandies mature in unusual casks — mulberry wood, ex-port, ex-rum and oak with crocodile toast.
- Production methods
- Handcrafted
- Modern Technology
- Traditional Methods
What they make
- Fruit BrandySingle-variety fruit brandies from the distillery's own meadow orchards — Pastorenbirne, the Mirabelle de Nancy, Mispel, an apple cuvée and the Pfälzer Weinbirne — and the house plum brandy matured in mulberry, ex-port and ex-rum casks.
- BrandyWeinbrand V.S.O.P., distilled from a Dornfelder rosé from the Nahe and matured five years in oak.
- GinsA Mediterranean London dry gin and the Hunsrück Dry Gin with fresh spruce and Douglas fir shoots.
- LiqueursFruit liqueurs made mostly from the distillery's own fruit, such as raspberry, and Salted Caramel liqueurs refined with Flor de Sal from the Algarve.
