On September 18, 2019, the groundbreaking ceremony for the new distillery of the Thurgau-based Macardo Distillery took place in Kreuz in the municipality of Amlikon-Bissegg. By the end of 2020, the distillery will erect two new buildings for a larger distillery, a modern barrel warehouse, and a bed & breakfast with ten rooms, an event area, seminar and conference facilities, two apartments, a cigar lounge, and a store.

Numerous partners and friends of the company owners, Martina and Andreas Bössow, as well as community president Thomas Ochs, his predecessor Othmar Schmid, vice community president Beat Buchmann, and the community councilors Urs Zurbuchen, Simon Haag, and Paul Sauter were on site for the groundbreaking ceremony. The president of the municipality, Thomas Ochs, was delighted with the groundbreaking project, which the municipality hopes will raise its profile beyond the region and benefit from the fact that the multipurpose event room can also be used for municipal events.

Company owner Andreas Bössow once again expressly acknowledged the location at the "Kreuz", which is only about two kilometers away from Macardo's current domicile in Strohwilen. "Macardo is closely connected with the Thurgau, because in all our noble distillates there are ultimately high-quality ingredients from the region as well as, of course, the pure water from our own spring. The location here at the cross, with the wide view over from the Sätis to the Churfirsten, is quite outstanding for the distillery, but also for the Bed & Breakfast project, and we are happy that the population and the community support our vision," he said on the occasion of the laying of the foundation barrel.

Together with his wife Martina and Master Distiller Bartholomäus Fink, he then placed not a traditional foundation stone, but a whiskey barrel "filled with secret ingredients" at the lowest point of the building site, directly next to the historic building of the old cheese dairy, which will be perfectly integrated into the appearance of the new facility, renovated from the ground up.

The renowned architect Florian Oettl from AD&Dis responsible for the design of the new buildings. He grew up in the Constance area and is now based in Dubai, where Andreas Bössow and his family also lived until recently and where they both met. "We blend modern architecture with the traditional beauty of the listed cheese dairy, pick up the line of the Churfirsten mountains by means of the five roof ridges, and interpret the colorfulness and tranquility of the Thurgau landscape with its fields, orchards and trees with the multicolored façade constructed from natural raw materials," he explained. "We also have a pioneering energy and environmental concept," Andreas Bössow added. According to him, a large part of the energy is generated by means of the company's own solar system, the waste heat from the distillery is used to heat the public rooms and B&B operations, and the biological waste is fed into a nearby biogas plant.

Now that ground has been broken, the builders expect the project to take around 15 months, weather permitting. The move and opening of the new Macardo distillery are then to be celebrated at the end of 2020. For more information on the operation, interested parties can visit www.macardo.ch.

 Author: Jörg Rothweiler, Romedia