Queen, Obsession and Coquette, on the way to America - Destilerija Zaric soon to conquer Russian, Caandian, Slovenian and German markets

Queen, Obsession, Nirvana, Honey or Coquette? They will offer you for the beginning a royal drink – special plum brandy, then honey brandy, quince brandy of splendorous aroma. Milan Zaric, the Executive Manager of Destilerija Zaric, at the beginning of his interview for eKapija says that foreigners as well are interested in trying different fruit brandies from our region and that Obsession is one of their favorite.

- Obsession is an extraordinary luxurious brandy of top quality made of fully ripe and healthy raspberry fruit. The unique recipe, a careful selection and special process of fermentation and distillation which keep aroma of this fruit make it special- Zaric points out and adds that it takes 20 kilograms of raspberry for the production of one liter of this brandy.

Apart from Obsession, Destilerija Zaric should soon send all fruit brandies from its product range over the Atlantic.

- In July we got a license for America and soon we will send the first contingent to that market. We have already exported brandies five times during the year to Australia, We are receiving very positive comments from this part of the world, both from our people who live there and the Australians – our collocutor mentions.

(Milan Zaric)

Brandies from Kosjeric found their way to fans of a drop in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Albania. This season should bring export to Slovenia and they are also negotiating with distributors form Russia, Canada and Germany.

- Our objective is to present as much as possible abroad, to conquer as many markets as possible and to export 70% of our production scope. We are expecting any moment to receive a license for export to Russia which is a very big and important market – Zaric points out.

The collocutor of eKapija is mentioning that the government should “support brandy”, i.e. to pay more attention to presenting it as a natural products from Serbia so that all our brandies would have better placement abroad.

Awards for quality drop

Within a short period of time, Destilerija Zaric managed to receive numerous awards at the international contests. Milan Zaric says that they are the most proud of the “World Champion 2012” award which they received at the world cup in Gyula in Hungary.

Recently, another world award reached Kosjeric. Namely, at the international event called “Gold distillate of the Danube”, held in Slovakia, Destilerija Zaric won the absolute quality champion ”award for “nirvana brandy.

Joker from Kosjeric

The capacity of the Destilerija Zaric is three million liters of high quality brandy made of different fruit grown in the region of Kosjeric, first of all of three kinds of plums.

Collocutor of eKapija is explaining how the most modern distillery in Southeast Europe originated from the tradition and the area of the former, famous Kosjeric-based distillery of brandy Povlen.

- The owner of the distillery, Vujica Zaric, my father, bought a facility of destroyed Povlen where he restarted production of the fruit brandy. We have a long tradition of brandy production in the family so we knew the quality of the Kosjeric region. Tito himself presented Povlenka to everybody because it was the only brandy in the old Yugoslavia with protected geographical origin. Povlenka has 400 awards from abroad from the times when there were no fairs but when samples were sold – our collocutor is explaining tradition of Kosjeric-based distillery.

Zaric points out they were trying in the best way possible to merge top technology, modern science, experience and old Serbian tradition.

- We want to fully exploit the capacity of this fruit region and tradition in making the most quality brandy. With the overall facility reconstruction, the most modern equipment for fermentation, distillation, stabilization and filtration is used. Production ends with the automatic filling device with bottle closing and labeling. The whole interior transport is atomized closed system.

Destilerija Zaric has started cooperation with more than 90 households and thus provided them a secure placement of fruit.

Quality leads to buyers in Serbia

The Destilerija Zaric mentions that the “queen” is the leader of all brandies since it took over the position of former povlenka.

- "Queen" is the only brandy from Serbia which is geographically protected, It says “queen” is produced in certain, typical geographical region, made of plums of the highest quality from that area, technology and production that make it unique. Brandy is more like cognac than plum brandy which is well-accepted at foreign markets.

Milan Zaric says that, as well as with other products, packaging is very important for attracting buyers and points out they have a bottle which could compete with any foreign drink, without being embarrassed.

Brandies from Destilerija Zaric cost on the average some 1600 diners so one can buy plum brandy for 700 diners while raspberry brandy is the most expensive and costs RSD 3,900 in retail.

Fans of quality drop have probably already recognized Kosijeric producer in restaurants such as Frans, Novak, Careva cuprija, Marinada, etc. and "queen", "obsession", "nirvana" and "honey" can be found in Belgrade shopping center, wine shops as well as in stores of Dis, Idea, Vero and Mercator.

S.O.