Brothers Andy and Greg Koenig were moved to drink while living in their father’s hometown of Lustenau, Austria. Well, moved to open a distillery and winery back home in Caldwell, Idaho, to be clear—fixating on the spirits based on fruit under the handle of Koenig Distillery and Winery. Luckily for them, their mother’s family had been homesteading in Southwest Idaho on on Sunny Slope for three generations, where some of Idaho’s highest quality fruit have been growing for more than a century on the Snake River. The Brothers Koenig planted their small orchard (peach, apricot, plum, pear and cherry) in 1995 with their vineyard (Merlot, Semillon and Chardonnay) getting planted a year later. The Huckleberry Vodka is produced from macerated, hand-picked wild huckleberries in their base vodka and slow-distilled in their custom-made stills. This vodka proves that all-natural is all better, providing big berry aromas and earthy, clean flavors without the cloying stick of artificial flavor infusions. Straight forward, juicy and smooth, Koenig recommends mixing in fresh lemonade and sipping on a deck this spring.
