OREANDA-NEWS  Kaluga distillery "Kristall" began bottling sambuca in Russia. The fact that the company wanted to produce a traditional Italian anise liqueur, with reference to a source in the company, Kommersant reports.

The Sambuca Ernaldi brand will be sold in the Red and White alcohol supermarkets. The exact production volumes have not yet been announced, however, according to the owner of the plant Pavel Pobedkin, the sambuca niche in Russia is the least competitive. According to the company's calculations, from January to August, 33 thousand decaliters of sambuca were purchased in the country, of which one third was of the domestic brand Motichelli.

According to NielsenIQ, in January-July 2024, natural liquor sales in Russia increased by 5.4 percent year-on-year. At the same time, rum sales increased by 21.8 percent, and whiskey sales increased by 20.9 percent.

Sales of Russian sambuca will depend on the price — according to Pavel Shapkin, head of the Center for the Development of National Alcohol Policy, there is already a cheap Belarusian sambuca on the market at a price of 300 rubles per bottle. In addition, sambuca is rather a bar drink, it is rarely bought at home.

In December 2023, the German concern lost the court to Kristall and the WineStyle network in a lawsuit for 197 million rubles. The Moscow Arbitration Court rejected the company's demands to ban the production and sale of herbal liqueurs (bitters) Alter Heiler and Konig Heiler. The copyright holder of the Jagermeister brand considered the design style of bottles and labels similar to Jagermeister and demanded compensation for trademark infringement.