Old Well Akvavit
Below (Wesenberg), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany
- ABV
- 40%
- Base spirit
- Unknown
- Color
- Clear
- Style
- Unaged Aquavit
Old Well Akvavit is produced by Old Well Distillery in Below, near Wesenberg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It is bottled at 40% ABV, with the main documented bottle size being 500 ml. The spirit is clear and is part of the distillery’s current range.
The aquavit was inspired by distiller Alex Remzi’s long connection with Iceland through his 8MM Bar in Berlin. In the late 2000s the bar became a regular meeting place for Icelandic musicians and was jokingly referred to as an unofficial Icelandic embassy. On one occasion the actual Icelandic embassy sent the bar a case of Brennivín, and Old Well describes its aquavit as a revival of those years.
Old Well was already serving its own Akvavit as part of distillery tastings by February 2024. The product remains available directly from the distillery.
About the producer
Old Well Distillery
Below (Wesenberg), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany
Old Well Distillery was opened by Alex Remzi in 2020 in Below, a small locality belonging to Wesenberg in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The distillery occupies a converted former village well house and revived a family connection with distilling more than a century after Remzi’s ancestor Wilhelm Christian Theodor Gadau had operated a distillery in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. That earlier family distilling tradition ended in 1918.
Remzi’s route into spirits began in Berlin, where he opened the 8MM Bar in 2002, followed by the 8MM Musik record label in 2006 and the Synästhesie music and arts festival in 2015. He began making his own herbal liqueur, Melloch, in 2013 and later travelled to Louisville to study bourbon production before developing the Old Well project.
Production is carried out on two Arnold Holstein copper stills. In a 2024 interview Remzi described them as a 50-litre electrically heated still and a 150-litre wood-fired still. Old Well produces its spirits in small batches and handles production and bottling on site. The distillery has gradually expanded its range to include gin, absinthe, fruit spirits, herbal spirits, aquavit and whisky in maturation.
The operating company is 8MM Destillerie GmbH, while Old Well Distillery is the public name of the distillery. Its production site and visitor centre are at Belower Straße 10, 17255 Wesenberg.