Castrum: Croatian craft gin with a strong connection to Slavonia

by croatiaweek
July 17, 2022
in Food & Wine

Castrum - new Croatian craft gin from Slavonia with strong connection to its roots

Iva and Mihovil (Photo: Craft spirits)

The Croatian craft scene has seen an emergence of quality craft gin recently. Craft spirits, a small distillery in Kaptol in central Slavonia, released Castrum last year, a gin with which they want to show tradition, but in a modern way with a strong connection to its home in eastern Croatian.

By distilling wheat, natural spring water from the nearby Papuk mountain and spices such as pine, hibiscus, rosemary, mint, cinnamon, pepper, but also those associated with Slavonia like elderberry, mulberry and grape vines, they want to bring everyone closer to the flavors of Slavonia.

(Photo: Craft spirits)

It is not only the tastes that bind this gin to Slavonia. The young owners Iva and Mihovil wanted to connect the whole visual story with their home county, so the whole bottle also has a story.

The shape of the label represents the floor plan of the fort located in Kaptol, looking at it from the air, and the shape of such a medieval fort is called castrum.

(Photo: Craft spirits)

The golden-bronze element on the label is a ‘faler’, an ornament from horse bridles ridden by one of the Hallstatt warriors, which was excavated at the archeological site Kaptol – Gradci and Kaptol – Čemernica.

(Photo: Craft spirits)

Since this warrior aristocracy lived above the Kaptol in the Iron Age, the colour of the ‘faler’ themselves on the bottle, which shimmers in the sun, is irresistibly reminiscent of iron.

Iva and Mihovil were working on the realization of this idea for a long time, and they are especially proud because the very opening of the company, distillation and finally – sales, took place in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

(Photo: Craft spirits)

Despite secure jobs in Zagreb in the field of digital marketing and law, they decided to replace the view from the 14th floor of a Zagreb skyscraper with a view of Papuk mountain.

Although only London Dry gin is currently on offer, the young entrepreneurs have announced that barrel aged gin, which is still lying in a wooden barrel, will see the light of day.