QUALITY

The guiding principle of a sustainable company deeply rooted in nature has evolved from the company's history.

We bear responsibility towards consumers through sustainable management and must also be able to credibly document this outwardly. This philosophy guarantees the success of Lautergold, which has already persisted for hundreds of years.

Lautergold factory products have been made for centuries in the classic methods of maceration, digeration and percolation. Aromatic distillates are generated from old family recipes as the basis of products, whereby up to 40 different herbs and spices are processed and hand-crafted.

Maceration (from Latin macerare, 'soak') is a physical process in which the herbal recipe is exposed for some time to the effect of a liquid such as water, oil or alcohol. The product is referred to as a 'macerate'. One refers to 'digesting' if this process is supported by means of the addition of heat.

Percolation is also employed for extraction of herbal active substances when producing spirits and remedies. Water or alcohol is channeled through plants or plant components in this connection.

In simplified terms you can say that the aromatic and coloring substances are filtered out of the fruits, seeds and roots which the distiller adds with the respective recipe during the maceration, digeration and percolation through the alcohol.

Strictly speaking, the cell structures are dissolved through the admixtures of alcohol during this process and the content from the cell, together with aromatic and coloring substances, flows into the alcoholic solution – the macerate – as the basis of products.

But if the producer would like to accelerate the process of maceration somewhat, he has another possibility. He simply increases the temperature of the solution to approx. 40 – 50° C. During the course of this process referred to as digeration, the molecules flow much faster, whereby the process described above takes place quite a bit faster.

In addition to the recipe, the manner in which the process is implemented is also essential. Depending on which ingredients from the recipe are extracted and which effect they develop, the duration and temperature of treatment shall be determined.

At any rate, high-quality raw materials are always the essential basis of every product. The alcohol employed is a pure natural product made from grain, and it is frequently refined.

All this together constitutes the centuries-old treasure trove of experience exhibited by Lautergold with its extraordinary products.

We use the maceration as well as the digeration process for our herb-flavored liqueurs. This means that we add the wild herb blends predetermined by centuries-old recipes in our distillation plant, which has been tried and tested for generations. There the herbal recipes are infused with highly pure grain alcohol (approx. 96.6% alcohol by volume). This recipe then rests for several days to give the alcohol time to dissolve and absorb the flavoring substances and natural aromatic substances of the herbs. Only after that the recipe is slowly heated several times to approx. 50 degrees Celsius. This process takes approx. 3 days. Only then are the wild herbs filtered out. The result is a highly concentrated macerate enriched with natural flavoring substances. After the procedure is completed, we allow this macerate to mature for several months in clay tanks so that it can optimally harmonize, i.e. it achieves the perfect taste experience.

After this period the macerate is further blended with the alcohol extracted from the grain, i.e. harmonized and refined for consumption. But before we put this product on sale, a storage period of several weeks is necessary here in order to also achieve the maximum taste experience through a further harmonization of substances.

For our fruit liqueurs we must initially press out the juice by slightly heating the fruits. Extremely careful handling is necessary here to obtain the character and taste of the respective fruit.

The fruit juice extracted in this manner is then blended with high-quality grain alcohol. The fruit liqueur is further seasoned and refined with a fruit distillate here in order to also achieve the perfect fruit and taste experience with its fine, full-bodied fruit aroma.

This fruit distillate is an alcohol that is extracted from the respective fruits through the so-called 'distillation of fruits'. Due to this gentle treatment of raw materials that has been practiced for hundreds of years it is possible for us to create this unique experience of pleasure for our customers.