Traditional Latvian wines, liqueurs and meaningful history at Cremon

In a rustic barn next to Krimulda Manor is Cremon, a winery and distillery run by Janis Mikans. using local fruits and herbs. Krimulda Manor is a former aristocratic home that was converted into a children’s sanatorium during Soviet times and still sees patients and medical/health tourists. The symbiotic relationship between the manor devoted to health and the natural beverages is incredible. Cremon is a Baltic-German name. I was happy to be hosted to experience it!

The cover photo was actually taken in the manor house.

I don’t usually post pics of myself here for many reasons, but Mikans put the cute hat on me and I posed with this bottle, which I think was a Methuselah size. You can see how delightful the tasting room is!

Cremon offers all kinds of tasting and buying opportunities. I tried a dandelion wine, 13% alcohol. It was semi-dry and lovely.

Lilac wine is a musky drink. I asked what color lilacs were used. Mikans answered through a translator that after doing experiments, he learned that there is no flavor difference between the colors, so he uses white, pink and violet.

Raspberry wine is made with all regional fruit. There are also wild berries beverages. These are 30% alcohol.

For cloudberry — that we call lingonberry — he only uses wild fruit.

Rowan trees also produce wild, tart fruit that he makes into a tart drink.

Cowberry — which I never heard of — is a wild fruit that he gathers in the forest. It’s got a natural sweetness and was favorite of the liqueurs.

He makes an eau de vie that’s aged for 3 years. It’s made with 9 different herbs, including juniper and said to cure “99 illnesses”. It has 40% alcohol and I learned that it’s good at Christmas.

Another 40% liqueur is sea buckthorn, a popular tart berry that supplies a lot of Vitamin C to northern countries.

There’s a 50% liqueur also popular at Christmas and Solstice.

I learned that while the Latvian liqueur tradition was no doubt influenced by German schnapps, the Latvians have really built their own flavors and styles. I also learned that “tall” drinks — a big glass with a splash of liqueur and topped with soda — is not a Latvian thing.