A whisky distillery on the Swabian Alb, founded by the farmer Hans-Gerhard Fink, who grows the grain for it on 400 hectares of his own land. In Heroldstatt it makes the finch Schwäbischer Hochland Whisky — single malts and whiskies from wheat, spelt, the ancient grain emmer, corn and rye, with cask finishes — and, under its sister brand Albfink, gins, vodka, fruit brandies and liqueurs.
- Raw materials
- Grain from the distillery's own 400 hectares on the high plateau of the Swabian Alb — winter and summer wheat, barley malted on finch's own malting floor at a maltings, spelt, and black emmer, an ancient wheat Hans-Gerhard Fink has brought back into cultivation — and the clear water of the Alb.
- What makes it distinctive
- Everything runs from field to glass in one hand: the grain is grown on the distillery's own land and distilled on what the distillery calls the largest pot still in Germany, built in 2012 with a 3,000-litre mash pot and a nine-plate column. The heads are cut off and discarded rather than returned to the next run, the new make leaves the still at about 91 % vol, and it matures only in used casks from European wine estates and the USA, at most in their third fill, so that the youngest finch whiskies are five years old.
- Production methods
- Estate Production
- Handcrafted
- Modern Technology
What they make
- Whiskiesfinch Schwäbischer Hochland Whisky: single malts and grain whiskies from the distillery's own wheat, barley, spelt, the ancient grain black emmer, corn and rye, matured in wine, sherry, port and bourbon casks — from the FINESELECTION range to cask-strength, private and distillery-only editions.
- GinsAlbfink gins distilled on copper stills: the dry GIN, the AGED GIN rested eight months in a bourbon cask and a limited SLOE GIN, and the PLAYBOY GIN, a London dry gin with nettle seed, lady's mantle, basil and marigold.
- VodkasAlbfink WODKA, distilled several times in copper stills from the distillery's own grain and filtered through activated charcoal.
- RumsAlbfink RUM ANEO15, a rhum agricole from fresh sugar-cane juice, distilled in the Caribbean by a family business the distillery works with and aged 15 years in oak.
- Fruit BrandyAlbfink fruit brandies — Williams pear, Mirabelle, cherry, apricot, rowan berry, grape, a pear duet, an Obstler and a plum cigar brandy — beside the sloe Geist, an Alb herb and silver thistle spirit, a grape-anise spirit and DIE NUSS, distilled with hazelnuts, cocoa beans and almonds.
- LiqueursLiqueurs: the finch whisky-honey liqueur made with local honey and no other sugar, the Albfink cherry, plum, butterscotch and egg liqueurs, and Bettina's Limoncello.
