The main raw ingredient for fermentation is ripe fruit, which is transported via a screw conveyor into a grinder. That breaks up the fruit to make fermentation easier, but without crushing the pits. Then it is pumped into fermentation tanks where fermentation takes place.

Alcoholic fermentation is a process during which yeast transforms sugars into alcohol. This transformation of sugar into alcohol is accomplished by yeast enzymes, with byproducts of carbon dioxide and heat. The fermentation process ceases at temperatures below 10 °C and it proceeds faster at increased temperatures; however it is better to ferment slower – 15 °C is generally considered the ideal temperature, which should be maintained throughout the entire process. Alcoholic beverages created via natural fermentation contain only about 14% alcohol by volume. To attain a higher alcohol content, distillation is necessary.

Multiple distillation yields a distillate (70–75%), which must then be diluted before bottling.

We love to experiment and play around with the taste of our products, so each year we offer some exclusive non-traditional products.

Ageing, or egalisation, is the next step of production. It is a very important step – one might say it is what gives the product its ‘spirit’. In the first phase, the distillate is diluted to 42–45% alcohol by volume using specially treated water. Then it is stored, usually in stainless steel tanks in the case of clear distillates, where it is allowed to age for a period of at least a year. Select distillates then go on into oak casks, where they usually stay for a good long while…

The last step of production is the bottling process – but only after the spirits are filtered to remove any potential contaminants.

Bottling is done on automated bottling lines, where bottles are first sanitised, then filled with product and capped. The batch number is then printed, and finally the label and excise stamp are applied. All that at a rate of 85 bottles per minute. Each bottle is checked for the correct level of content, as well as for the presence of a cap and the excise stamp. Filled bottles then continue along a conveyor to be packed into cardboard boxes, which is also done by a machine. The last step is a weight check of the box and the printing of a barcode for easy identification in the warehouse. Cardboard boxes then move along a conveyor to the warehouse, where a robot stacks them onto pallets, and the pallets onto shelves.

Some of our products are still bottled and labelled by hand – especially those produced in small, limited editions.