In the picture-postcard town of Schliersee, Slyrs distillery arguably makes Germany’s best single malt whisky – Slyrs. While just under 10 kilometres away, Lantenhammer distillery produces distilled delights including brandies, fruity liqueurs, and Bavarian gin, as well as jams, glassware, giftpacks and other specialties.
Both are run by the third generation Stetter family and both are within easy reach of Karma Bavaria which is perched (rather fortuitously) half-way between the two
In fact, it’s after you’ve enjoyed some time on the Slyrs – which gets surprisingly easy to say after you’ve had a few – that you realise one great advantage of the distillery is having the four-star Karma Bavaria, with its indoor pool complete with indoor waterfall and stunning glass walls capturing green hills straight from The Sound of Music, so close by.
Unrivalled winter playground
Schliersee is just over an hour on the train from Munich and is near the Austrian border and the town of Salzburg. So why not visit in winter and ski the Spitzingsee-Tegernsee snowfields – one of Europe’s best, but least travelled, winter playgrounds.
You can ski board, or strap on some skates and hit Lake Schliersee or set off on a horse-drawn carriage ride, with locally distilled potables to keep you warm – for the cold is a dangerous thing.
In summer you can take mountain hikes, bike rides and paragliding trips, and of course visit either distillery.
The original Lantenhammer Distillery was founded in 1928 and is now run with passion and expertise by Andrea and Florian Stetter, the grandson of the original founder Josef Lantenhammer, with the help of 20 employees and much of the work is done by hand. As for Slyrs Whisky, it’s the brainchild of Florian who over a few fine local beers bet his friends he could make a single-malt whisky as good as anything found in Scotland.
Award-winning whisky
The good news is he was probably right. The whisky distillery which he founded in 1999 is Germany’s largest and has already picked up numerous gongs at the World Whisky Awards including Best European Single Malt 12 Years and under.
There are plenty of organised tours at both distilleries during which you can enjoy tasting the whisky or Williamsbirnenbrand (Williams pear schnapps), a Mirabellenbrand (mirabelle plum brandy) and a Waldhimbeergeist (forest raspberry schnapps), as well as spirits made from blackcurrants, strawberries, sour cherry, and apricot nectar.
The Stetters use only hand-picked juices and nectars from tree-ripened fruit.The result is a concentrated delightfully fruity taste.
The schnapps is distilled in copper vats then aged in porous earthenware containers for an average of three years at an alcohol content of 70 per cent, then just before bottling, the products are reduced to drinking strength by dilution with softened spring water.
Lantenhammer also offers personal guides that will take you into the heart of the distillery where the serious action takes place.
You can tour the huge stoneware containers and “look over the shoulder” of their master distillers as they tend their burners.
Lantenhammer Distillery
Obere Tiefenbachstraße 8
83734 Hausham, Germany
Tel.: +49-8026-9248-0
www.lantenhammer.de
Oh yes, you really have to try this perfect Single Malt from Bavaria – no doubt about it! Cheers!