Racke smoky tender
Racke rauchzart is a German whiskey from Schwarze & Schlichte Markenvertriebs GmbH from Oelde . After Ballantine’s , Jim Beam , Johnnie Walker and Jack Daniel’s, the brand is the best-selling whisk (e) y on the German market and has been sold since 1958.
The name of the whiskey goes back to the brand founder Harro Moller-Racke from the Bingen wine and spirits trading company Adam Racke GmbH & Co. KG . The Rackes, originally French Raquet , have demonstrably been doing their relevant business in the Rheingau since the 17th century ; Adam Josef Racke founded the trading company in 1855. At the beginning of the economic upswing after the end of the Second World War, Moller-Racke recognized that the market in West Germany was ripe for the successful introduction of a German whiskey brand, which - in contrast to what was at the time - exclusive and expensive Luxury product of Scotch whiskey - was affordable for the average consumer.
In 1958, 850,000 bottles were filled and sold. The blend consisted of a mixture of imported Scottish malts that Racke blended with local grain brandies in its own production facility in Rinteln and had it distilled by various producers. The blend was first launched on the market under the name Red Fox and was massively advertised, which led to legal problems. The Scottish whiskey industry argued that the English name made a reference to Scottish origin, even though the product was not made according to Scottish production methods. Racke then changed the name to today's Racke smoky-tender in 1961 , but left the red fox as a brand emblem on the bottle label. Moller-Racke expanded and acquired brands such as Pott's Rum and Dujardin Weinbrand , merged them into a holding company ( Pott-Racke-Dujardin-GmbH & Co. KG ) and thus became the largest wine and spirits producer and distributor in Germany. In 2003 the Schwarze & Schlichte Group acquired the trademark rights from Racke rauchzart together with the more than 33,000 m² production facility of A. Racke GmbH & Co. KG in Rinteln. The business activity of the company Racke ended in 2009.
The new owner adapted the character and the product properties to the changing expectations of consumers for the quality and sensory properties of whiskeys. Since 1990 only malt and grain whiskeys produced in Scotland have been used for the blend (up to 25 individual distillates), but the blending continues to take place in Germany. A special, filtered spring water from a 240 m deep well is used to adjust the initial barrel strength to the standard 40% by volume.
Bottlings
- Special Blend , standard bottling since 1961, today softer than the bottlings of earlier decades
- Special bottling of a 12-year-old blend
- Special bottling of a 25-year-old blend
- Special bottling of a 40-year-old blend of Scottish malt and German grain for the brand's fortieth anniversary in 2000
literature
- Walter Schobert: The whiskey dictionary. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 2003, ISBN 978-3-596-15868-3 .