Rye and spry in Germany
Bumper crop of distilleries making a mark on the whiskey map
SCHLEPZIG, Germany — Bastian Heuser swirls the snifter of deep amber whiskey before taking a sip, noting its sweet caramel flavor that soon opens up with hints of spices, nuts and dried fruits.
It’s not a single malt from a verdant Scottish glen, nor a sour mash from the hills of Tennessee. This is an award-winning German rye whiskey produced by the tiny Spreewood Distillery, nestled in a small town among the fields and forests of Brandenburg about an hour’s drive from Berlin.
German whiskey is little known outside the country, and the industry is still tiny compared with others, but isn’t unaffected by major international issues, with distillers seeing both opportunities and dangers with Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and Europe’s trade spat with the U.S. over new tariffs.
Both issues may seem far away from the Spreewood Distillery, established in refurbished farm buildings in the town of Schlepzig, home to about 600 people, where the emphasis is on a small, craft product named Stork Club created from locally sourced ingredients.
“From grain to glass, we do it all here,” Heuser said at the distillery he has run with his two partners since 2016. “The only thing we don’t have is our own field of rye, but maybe that will come.”
More and more micro operations like Spreewood have been opening in recent years, focusing on small batches of quality whiskey. Nobody quite knows when it happened, but today distilleries producing whiskey in Germany outnumber those in Scotland, about 180 to 130.
“It’s crazy how many German whiskey distilleries there are these days,” German Whisky Distillers’ Association president Michaela Habbel said.
“Of course the fact still is that German whiskey only accounts for 0.4 percent of the world market.”
In 2017, the entire German whiskey production was worth $13.1 million — negligible when compared with Scotch whisky exports alone that year, worth about $5.8 billion.
With such a small overall production of about 1.6 million gallons in 2017, German whiskey is mostly sold on the domestic market. But that doesn’t mean Heuser and Habbel aren’t watching international politics, with whiskey featuring prominently in two major current issues — Brexit and U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist tariffs.
With 90 percent of Scotch whisky exported, accounting for 20 percent of all British food and beverage exports, the Scotch Whisky Association is increasingly concerned about Britain’s looming exit from the European Union, especially if there is no deal on future trade relations.
“Brexit represents a seismic shift for our industry and one which our members are working hard to plan and adjust for,” the association said, noting that the EU is the single most valuable market for Scotch.
Across the Atlantic, when Trump imposed tariffs on European steel and aluminum, the EU retaliated last year targeting “typically American” products, including Harley-davidson motorcycles and bourbon whiskey.
With duties looming for Scotch and already on bourbon, Habbel sees opportunity for German distillers.
“Maybe the consumer who has always drunk Scotch will look over to the distillery next door and turn to the German product,” she said.
But if the whiskey tariffs turn into a long-term issue, Heuser said it would be to nobody’s benefit.
Right now, Spreewood only exports small quantities of whiskey to Britain. But it’s hoping to increase that and is eyeing possible exports to the U.S. down the road.
“The U.K. is a very important whiskey market, especially to launch brands, because they’re just very open toward it,” said Heuser, who once worked as a bartender in London. “And the U.S. is a huge market, especially for whiskey.”
Despite being sold mostly domestically, German whiskeys are gaining international recognition. In 2017, a single malt from Habbel’s Hillock Park Distillery won double gold and was named the best whiskey in the world by the “World Spirits Award.”
Hillock Park is one of the oldest German distilleries producing whiskey today. The business grew out of the distillery’s production of “korn” liquor — basically moonshine — for coal miners in the industrial Ruhr region.