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From fermented fruit to brandy

Heinz Wuffli has spent the months of January to March travelling around with his 80-year-old mobile distillery for more than 20 years, visiting farms in eastern Switzerland. At the end of January it was parked at the farm of Benedikt Schnyder in Illighausen in canton Thurgau.

Farmers bring along their barrels of fermented fruit, the “mash”: first he distils the apples and pears, then cherries, and finally fruit with stones. This year there are no quinces – the harvest was bad. As for the quality of the final product, Heinz Wuffl says he can’t work magic. The aroma of the schnapps depends on the quality of the fruit supplied. After tasting and smelling some of the barrels, he discards them as unusable – the sugar in the fruit has turned to vinegar rather than alcohol. And that’s a no-no in Wuffli’s still.

All pictures by Thomas Kern / swissinfo.ch

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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR