5 Stops on Germany’s Whiskey Trail

The distillery, in the quiet village of Schlepzig, is an easy, 20-minute public bus ride from the train station in the town of Lübben. Housed in a restored, 100-year-old farmhouse, Spreewood has a comfortable cafe, serving coffee, snacks and whiskey samples. The cafe does not currently serve a manhattan cocktail, a natural for its peppery rye whiskey.

Not yet, anyway.

Information: stork-club-whisky.com

Kressbronn am Bodensee

Unlike at Slyrs, there is no 12-year-old single malt available from Baden-Württemberg’s Steinhauser distillery, which only began producing whiskey in 2008, with its current longest-aged drop just eight years old. The distillery’s Brigantia line of single malts has seen recent success, with a version finished in an Islay cask from Scotland, famous for producing pungent, smoky and peaty whiskeys, taking home a silver medal at Germany’s Best Whisky Awards in 2018.

Outside the village of Kressbronn, on the hills overlooking Lake Constance, (about two and a half hours from Munich or Stuttgart), the Steinhauser distillery officially calls itself a Weinkellerei, meaning a wine cellar or a producer of wine. In addition to its wines, Steinhauser sells an award-winning dry gin, as well as an array of fruit schnapps and liqueurs. The source of those ingredients is apparent at first glance: Your journey by bus or train toward this shimmering lake fed by the Rhine River will take you through grove after grove of apples, peaches, grapes and hops, all growing in beautiful, well-tended trellises.

For most visitors, it will be easiest and most interesting to stay just down the road, in the larger lakeside resort town of Friedrichshafen, the birthplace of the Zeppelin and home to the Zeppelin Museum. The waterfront promenade offers postcard-worthy views of Lake Constance, with Switzerland and the rising Alps visible on the far side, as well as the occasional airship sighting overhead.

Visitors can sample Brigantia whiskey at the tasting counter of the expansive, on-site wine and spirits shop, roughly a 20-minute, cross-country walk from the small train station in Kressbronn, with frequent local trains coming from Friedrichshafen. The classic, three-year-old Brigantia offers notes of licorice and spice, and a long-lasting, slightly sulfurous finish; the eight-year version is substantially smoother and more complex. Though distillery tours are not currently available, staff said that they may start up soon.

Information: weinkellerei-steinhauser.de/whisky-destillerie

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