“
These dwell among the blackest souls, loaded down deep by sins of differing types. If you sink far enough, you’ll see them all.”

— Dante - Inferno, Canto VI

THE SINS

The world’s first sprirts series with 7 different categories

When Dante Alighieri completed his Divina Commedia 700 years ago, he certainly did not realize the scope of his mystical verses about the descent into the circles of hell. The seven deadly sins described therein, have lost none of their topicality and fascination to this day.

Global banks plunge entire economic systems into crisis with their AVARICE, while armadas of young people sell their bodies online to the LUST of mankind.
In rich countries, tons of valuable food are destroyed by insatiable GLUTTONY. The targeting of individual VANITY and ENVY has given rise to billion-dollar social media companies and digitalisation is feeding the SLOTH that goes with it. If you think that humanity has learnt from history, watch WRATH still reigning supreme. Sin is an inescapable part of being human and indisputably linked to our DNA.

As a lover of the Spirits Multiverse it was always my dream to create a small but uncompromising series that brings together the beauty of Armagnac, Cognac, Rum, Rhum Agricole, Bourbon, Scotch Whisky and Calvados at the highest possible level. Hence I was given the opportunity to select seven truly exceptional SINS for each category from a sea of barrels and illustrate them together with the Designer Theresa Plos from Vienna.

Welcome to THE SINS. A series from the renowned independent bottler Distilia and myself, Rob Bauer. Led by its two founders, Piotr Kossowski and Jakub Baginski, Distilia has built up an incredibly strong reputation over the past decade thanks to its legendary bottlings and numerous awards, particularly in the whisky and rum categories.

7 Casks
7 Categories
7 Benchmarks
7 SINS

When selecting the casks for the series, we made anything but the easy choice.
Our goal was not simply to pick a few interesting barrels, but to identify the absolute Champions League of each individual category. I personally tasted more than a hundred casks and visited several countries. Together with Distilia, who took on a considerable entrepreneurial risk, we knocked on countless doors. Over the course of several years, we truly pushed the limits of what was possible—and went far beyond them.

The hard work and persistence paid off.
We were able to secure vintages that are now virtually impossible to obtain on the market, including casks from highly exclusive distilleries to which an independent bottler would normally have no access, as well as from lost distilleries that ceased production years ago. These are highly complex spirits that have sparked waves of enthusiasm among critics and spirits lovers around the world.

“After more than 100 reviews on RumX, what else can I say? For me, it's probably the best rum I've ever had in my glass.”

— Former Customer about THE SINS AVARICE Long Pond 1983

dark. opulent. poetic. immoral. rare. provocative. grotesque. uncompromising.

The concept is half the battle.
With the arrival of Brutalism in the early 1950’s, championed by the architect Le Corbusier, as well as the influental Bauhaus school at large—opulence and playfulness in art and architecture were increasingly forced to justify their very right to exist. Function and practicality—mass production, in other words—became the new narrative, later reinforced by Scandinavian minimalism and, under the omnipotence of today’s tech companies, driven to its zenith.

Left behind along the way were romance, whimsy, and forms that ignite the imagination.

As an incurable late Romantic, the SINS project is, in design terms, my small, personal contribution to the counter-movement.

Inspired by my favorite Baroque painters, Peter Paul Rubens and Francisco de Goya, we—together with designer Theresa Plos—try to tell a story with every sin, using symbolism and haunting stories to fan the connoisseur’s imagination into flame. Dante’s verses from the Divine Comedy offer a rich, almost inexhaustible source of inspiration.