Lantenhammer distillery
Between innovation and tradition in Upper Bavaria and that since 1928
How many pears fit in a 500ml bottle of Lantenhammer Williams pear brandy? In terms of shape, none at all and with a lot of imagination it might be two pears that could be artfully stacked and cut in half in a bottle. Anton Stetter is the managing director of Bavarian Destillers GmbH and the creative mind behind the noble distillery Lantenhammer in Hausham and makes the seemingly unthinkable possible, because he makes ten to twelve kilograms of pears disappear into a bottle. Distilled, of course.
The Upper Bavarian distillery with tradition has been around since 1928 and has since been known far beyond the borders of the region for its fine brandies, spirits and liquers. The highest quality is the top priority and runs like a red thread through the company's history. The previous generations did without adding sugar and flavors and thus differentiate themselves from the lowest quality level, schnapps, which is often incorrectly used in popular parlance as a generic term for digestif. As mediators of the highest demands on the origin and quality of the raw materials to be processed, Anton Stetter and his master distiller Tobias Maier are always on the lookout for the best types of fruit. So it is not surprising that the regions of origin differ from year to year, because the harvest from a contract farmer is not always good and of the desired quality. In the case of inferior quality, a harvest can be distilled for as long as one wants, a brandy never emerges from it.
At Lantenhammer, it's not just fine brandies that find their way onto the shelves of the adventure distillery in Hausham and the bars of partner companies in the region, but also liquers, rum and other rarities. Anton Stetter does not know standstill and defines himself and his companies more through innovation than through tradition, the values of which flow into all products as almost 100 years ago. Two thirds of sales are made with products that weren't even available ten years ago. Above all, the Josef Gin (based on the founding father Josef Lantenhammer) enjoys great popularity, especially among younger connoisseurs.
In 1999, the first SLYRS whiskey saw the light of the barrel and triggered a wave of enthusiasm that has continued unchecked to this day. Anton Stetter cannot be stopped in 2020 either and is already looking forward to the start of the new SILD whiskey, which, as the name suggests, has its origins as far away from the Schliersee as you can move north within Germany. Sylt spring water and Sylt barley, together with North Sea maturation, give the whiskey a tart and smoky aroma that even makes the salty sea air palatable. Friends and connoisseurs of fine distillates can look forward to innovative products from Hausham in the future and be sure that one or two bottles will find their way into the fireplace bar at Gut Steinbach.
