Cellar Radenkovic's Kruna Plum Brandy, Serbia

Not yet evaluated by ISDA

Plums.  Even as each plum goes off to that great Orchard in the sky, it's spirit remains, captured by the distiller.  The Radenkovic Family has been capturing the spirit of windblown Stenley and Cacanska plums from their own orchards for over 12 years.  Naturally fermented, with only water and yeast added to ensure a clean fermentation, the plums are fermented on the stone in the traditional style, skins and all.

Distilled in a Danilo Oreovac copper still manufactured in 2000 in Svljig, Serbia, each drop of their Slivovitz passes through the still twice, permitting Milomir (Mika, to his friends and family) Radenkovic to monitor the progression of the heads to capture the bright plum essence at precisely the right time.  His 12 years experience, gained from his ancestors and refined with the advice of Ninoslav Nikicevic, Serbia's noted distilling expert at U Belgrad, has taught him to monitor the still carefully, cutting off distillation just before the tails (heavy fusals and other components) slip through to ruin the batch.  The timing is crucial, since flavor, aroma, and body depend on having just enough, but not too much of the heads and tails of the distillation. (the middles are essentially ethanol)

The distiller ages each batch in charred oak barrels for 5 years in his basement, before adjusting the proof to 90 (darn alcohol laws!) to meet the legal requirements.  Perhaps his friends and family get to taste it full proof as it comes from the 1000 liter barrel, but we have to settle for 90 proof. 

It's a sure sign of a confident distiller that he bottles from a single barrel.  Many distillers will blend barrels, hoping to smooth out inconsistency and perhaps hide a harsh run, but not Radenkovic.  He confidently fills each bottle from the same barrel, trusting that his years of experience in distilling, and even more years of tasting, are all the guarantee his customers need.  Bottles have appeared in the US, generally brought in by family unwilling to replace their family's pride with another slivovitz.

The brand is worth a try, if you have friends in Serbia who have friends in Knjazevac, it's only locally (by local we mean not here) distributed by:

STR “Lux” Trgoviste, owned by Dejan Kosovac, +381654738654

 

Distiller contact information:

Cellar Radenkovic

Milomir (Mika) Radenkovic                

Oktobarske Revolucije #79

19350 Knjazevac, Serbia

    

email: jasna59@ yahoo.com, jekar80@ yahoo.com 

phone: +38119733932,  +381637830402

 

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