The quality and quantity of fruit in South Bohemia inspired Baron Hildprandt to establish a Castle Distillery directly in front of his castle in Blatná. Consequently, in 1885 it replaced a sugar factory the Baron had constructed in 1812. When he founded the distillery, he certainly did not know that for the next hundred years his family would be expelled from Bohemia to Ethiopia. Indeed, family’s journey followed the motto written in their family’s coat of arms: “over the obstacles to glory”. In the middle of the 20th century, the Hildprandt family lost all their property and were forced to leave Bohemia. They lived in Ethiopia for some time, later on in Germany and it was only at the beginning of the 1990s that the Hildprandt family could return to Blatná. Today, the Castle Distillery has been once again celebrating its fame not only with traditional liqueurs, but also with Baron Hildprandt fruit spirits and Drago. The distillery production takes place under careful supervision of master of distiller Václav Šitner, who is also President of the Union of Distillers.
Václav Šitner - master distiller
Baron Johan Hildprandt
Storks are somehow inherently connected to Blatná distillery. For many years there was nothing special about it, storks came in the spring, nestled, brought out their young in the summer and they all flew away in the fall. The last few years, however, storks stayed with us despite the winter. The reason was perhaps the fact that the male came from the kennel and probably had some suppressed natural instincts. He stayed alone for the first winter and the female stork returned to him in the spring. In the following years, they stayed already in a couple. Obviously, they were lucky to stay here during mild winters we have seen in the recent years.