In May I sent a message to a guy called Jann Vestby. Jann and his wife Synnøve are the founders of Gardsbrenneriet, a local hand craft distillery (and apple farm) at Sandane, in the middle of the Fjording-landscape.
I wrote that I was looking for local ingredients for my cream liqueur project, and wondered if he was interested in a conversation about that. He said Sure! and invited me over for a coffee.
Instant bonding
The story of how Jann and Synnøve started their distillery has been written before, so I´ll just refer to this article from 2014 (in Norwegian) for those who want to read.
The important thing is: We instantly bonded and had the same perspectives on the value of natural and local resources. And even cooler: Jann and Synnøve had recently been talking about opening up for doing white label production - if the right opportunity came along... And so it did, when I entered the farm :)
The first time Jann and I met: On top of the distillery roof. The apple trees, the mountains and the beautiful Nordfjord is a great view. No wonder they wanted to live and start spirits production here.
The road ahead
I knew some of Gardsbrenneriet´s products from before, and I´m surely one of the biggest fans of their Apple Liqueur.
However it was after discussing with Jann and listening to how he would have approached a cream project that I knew; they´ll be a perfect match for Fjording as start up partner.
This autumn we will spend time together on test production and developing the right formulas for our 2018-batches. Hopefully (or most likely) we are launching in the first quarter next year.
Test panel?
Many people I´m talking to says; "please remember me when your first batches are ready. I wanna be in the test panel". That´s so cool to hear! I´ll see what I can do :)
If you´re representing a hotel, a restaurant, a festival or a different kind of organization that wants to try out the first Fjording versions as well, please just contact me. And we´ll see what we can arrange the next following months.