Wint & Lila

Wint & Lila - the Spanish organic gin

Wint & Lila is a gin brand of the Spanish beverage producer Casalbor. Casalbor produces and distributes various, mainly alcoholic beverages in Spain and Mexico.

The beginnings

The company was originally founded in the 1950s to produce Coca-Cola and other branded soft drinks directly in Andalusia and Extremadura. Coca-Cola has long been produced primarily locally rather than shipped from the Americas around the world. In the following years, the company entered into cooperations with well-known producers, such as the whisky producer Hiram Walker and Ballantine, or took over wineries. The Mora-Figueroa family joined the company at that time and was to become the main shareholder in the following years.

The foundation of Casalbor

Casalbor itself was finally launched in 2000 to produce its own wines and spirits. To do this, they purchased their own vineyards in Rioja and Ribera del Duero. The first spirit called iLovka Vodka saw the light of day in 2007. Casalbor's next child was Bayswater Gin, distilled from the original formula by Charles Maxwell, a luminary of the gin world.

Finally, after several successful years, the Wint & Lila gin followed in 2013. Initially "just" a London Dry Gin, it was soon followed by a Strawberry Gin, as well as an Organic Gin in 2018 under the same brand name. The Casalbor Group is now a successful producer, as well as distributor for major brands such as Beam Suntory in Spain and Mexico.

The varieties of Wint & Lila

There are two variants of Wint & Lila gin:

• Wint & Lila London Dry
• Wint & Lila Strawberry Gin

These gins are available once as a "conventional" and once as an organic variant.

The gin from Wint & Lila is first macerated in the glass bottle. The botanicals for this gin are juniper (of course), coriander, angelica root, cinnamon, orange, lemon and lime peel, orange blossom and mint. In the case of Strawberry Gin, strawberries are added to the recipe.

The distillation process

Maceration is followed by distillation in copper stills dating back to 1820, using the "au-bain-Marie" distillation method, in which an inner vessel is heated by an outer vessel filled with steam. This process offers gentle handling of delicate ingredients. The principle is quite familiar to the layman as a water bath in the kitchen, for example for melting chocolate. No preservatives, sweeteners or artificial flavours are used in Wint & Lila gins.

The focus on organic production has paid off for Wint & Lila, so the gins were awarded the gold medal at the International Organic Awards in 2020.