Our Craft
Passion, honesty, and love
Passion, honesty, and love
Delicious taste due to an extraordinary rye distillate
The Old Hunter’s Rye is a completely unique, purely Czech drink with a rich history dating back to the 16th century. One of the reasons for our uniqueness is the key raw material – rye. The basis of the Old Hunter’s Rye is a carefully selected rye distillate.
From the very beginning of its production, the Old Hunter’s Rye has focused on roasting rye: on the one hand because of the suitable conditions for a rich rye harvest and at the same time because of a delicious, unmistakable taste. Despite frequent official restrictions on the use of rye for the distillation of alcohol, distillers from Prostejov managed to defend and maintain the rye product for many centuries.
One glass of Old Hunter’s Rye (0.02 l) contains approx. 450 distilled rye grains. It is this rye grain that gives our drink an unmistakable spicy, fruity flavor.
The key to harmonizing the aroma and subtle taste of the extraordinary distillates aged for years in barrels, is the highest quality wood.
In our distillery, we most often use American white oak bourbon barrels. The wood of this variety tends to be less bent than European wood and is characterized by a tighter wood grain. Thanks to this, the distillate acquires a less woody taste and more smoothness.
The oak barrels in the Prostějov cellars are regularly checked and treated by local coopers. These casks give the Old Hunter’s Rye a long-lasting fine taste and fruity notes harmoniously combined with vanilla.
Through the pores of the aged wood, oxygen slowly enters the drink, and the distillate thus becomes softer, more harmonious and gets rid of the harsh finish during the aging process. White oak barrels add hints of vanilla, caramel, and fruit to the rye distillate.
The Old Hunter´s Rye recipe is still a carefully guarded secret, which only three people know in detail. One of them is our master blender (head distiller) Roman Petruš. He checks the ongoing maturation process and the quality of the unique combination of carefully selected ingredients every day. They have been mixed for centuries using the same ratio and following the same production procedure.
Although the Old Hunter’s Rye technology is being modernized during production, the essentials remain the same as 500 years ago. The passion and honesty of our people and our common love for this drink is imprinted in every drop.
