Wittenkamper Kluvensieker Prädikats-Aquavit
Reinbek, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
- ABV
- 42%
- Base spirit
- Unknown
- Color
- Clear
- Style
- Unaged Aquavit
Wittenkamper Kluvensieker Prädikats-Aquavit was a German aquavit produced under the Wittenkamper name in Schleswig-Holstein. The documented bottling is 42% ABV and carries the designation “Deutsches Erzeugnis”, identifying it as a German product. The spirit is clear and colourless.
The product takes its name from Kluvensiek, an estate in the municipality of Bovenau in Schleswig-Holstein. Its label depicts Herrenhaus Kluvensiek, the manor house of Gut Kluvensiek. The estate was first documented in 1450; the present manor developed from a house erected in 1777 and substantially enlarged and given its classical appearance in the nineteenth century.
The wording “Prädikats-Aquavit” forms part of the historical product name on the label. Wittenkamper collector records independently list Kluvensieker among the spirits produced under the Wittenkamper name, alongside products such as Holsteiner, Echter Reinbeker, Doppel Korn and Carolus Magnus.
The label’s combination of the regional Kluvensiek name and an image of the manor gives the aquavit a specifically Schleswig-Holstein identity, while Wittenkamper’s production operation was based in nearby Reinbek, east of Hamburg.
Bottle gallery
About the producer
Wittenkamper Spirituosen- und Likörfabrik
Reinbek, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Wittenkamper was a German spirits producer associated first with Hamburg and later with Reinbek, Schleswig-Holstein. A historical trade-directory compilation records Haus Wittenkamper Weinbrandkellerei in Hamburg by 1955, while Wittenkamper Spirituosen- und Likörfabrik Alexander Werson was entered in the Hamburg commercial register on 11 September 1959.
By the late 1960s the business was established in Reinbek. Trade-directory records from 1967, 1969 and 1981 list Wittenkamper Spirituosen u. Likörfabrik, Weinkellerei – Alexander Werson at Gutenbergstraße 13/15, Reinbek. Its documented assortment covered a broad range of spirits, including aquavit, Korn, gin, rum, fruit spirits, liqueurs and bitters.
Wittenkamper was still actively promoting spirits from Reinbek during the 1970s and 1980s. A 1974 advertising-industry report refers to the Wittenkamper Spirituosenfabrik in Reinbek and the national distribution of its Hausfreund bitter, while Hamburg-area public-transport records document advertising for Wittenkamper Korn during the mid-1980s.
Later collector records identify the business as Neue Wittenkamper Spirituosen- und Likörfabrik GmbH, also at Gutenbergstraße 13 in Reinbek, and note that production there has ceased. The Wittenkamper name nevertheless survived on individual products: Wittenkamper Carolus Magnus was still listed in German beverage trade catalogs in 2020–2022.