Our story
Tradition since 2020
There are so few truths in this world that you realize when you encounter one. One of those truths hit us like a blow when we finally had our hunting license in our pockets. Although we do not come from hunting families, we were immediately addicted to the hunt. Customs, cohesion and above all the production of high-quality food with respect for God's creatures are both fulfillment and a way of life for us. Only one thing we didn't like at all, there was no proper hunting liquor, only sticky, brown herbal liqueurs that made our necks stand up when we had to drink them.
In the course of several after hunting events we noticed that many hunters felt the same way and had meanwhile arrived at gin and tonic. But gin as hunting spirit? How untraditional. Since we are quite familiar with spirits, we soon realized that apparently nobody remembers the forefather of gin - juniper spirit. Gin, contrary to common belief, was not invented by our neighbours in Great Britain, but in the Netherlands, where it is called Genever. But juniper schnapps also has a much longer tradition in Westphalia and the Münsterland region than in England.
The idea was born to make a genuine German hunting schnapps based on juniper, thus not only creating an antipole to brown, sticky herbal liqueurs, but also reviving the tradition of juniper Schnapps. A gin for hunters, so to speak.
No sooner said than done: we researched for a few months and found a small family distillery in the Münsterland region (our home region), which still distills its own alcohol from wheat from the own fields. That was our quality standard. Nowadays there are unfortunately not many distilleries that do it that way anymore. We also got along with the owner of the distillery, who is a hunter himself, right away, and he was keen on our project. So for us it was a real bull's eye.
After a few more weeks, our product idea was on solid ground. We all agreed that we wanted to keep the juniper distillate as honest as possible in the North German manner. So we did not want to cover up its pure taste with countless "botanicals". But it was also clear that it needed an unmistakable note that would match the juniper and make our product unique. What could be more obvious than to use raw materials that the local forest gives us? Juniper corresponds very well with resinous aromas, such as those of conifers, so we decided to use essences from the pine tree. To give it a certain roundness and freshness, all that was missing was a fruity component with a slight acidity. Here the wild raspberry was perfect. After countless tastings we finally had the perfect recipe. The result is a wonderful juniper spirit that can be enjoyed pure or perfect with tonic or as a cocktail. No matter if you have to rinse the dust out of your throat with a short shot after catching a wild sow with the bare blade, or if you want to serve your guests a refreshing long drink in the garden - our Schnapps is always clear and honest!
Now came the next step: What do we call our child now? Something hunting it had to be, but what? Since we had just finished the hunting dog training with our dogs or were still in the middle of it, the word Rüdemann came to our minds after a few beers, a word that is almost no longer used today for the handler of a pack of dogs or even the handler of a single hunting dog. RÜDEMANN - that sounded to us like a perfect name for our project. The brand was secured, a company was quickly founded and we could start:
Write texts, build an online shop, come up with a label design and find an artist who could implement it. All of this in addition to our main jobs, of course, because this company should be one thing first and foremost - fun! And we were aware that we don't want to expose ourselves to the pressure of having to make a living from it, nor do we want to depend on others and be talked into it.
Here we are after our first bottling and we have the first bottles in our hands. True to our motto "rough on the outside, mild on the inside", we have decided on a somewhat "sharper" label design to stay in dog handler jargon.
We hope that you, dear fellow hunters, adventurers and gin lovers, will now enjoy our Wacholder as much as we do.
Cheers, good hunting and ho, Rüd, ho - on the noble hunt!
Niklas and Jan
PS: In order to do justice to tradition, we recommend that Rüdemann always drink with the left hand and garnish with a drinker's break. Of course, small breaks of coniferous trees like fir, spruce or Douglas fir are suitable here ;)
