Aal The Best

The idea to start an import company developed and matured the last year of my active duty as a Major General in the Norwegian Armed Forces. A close friend of mine introduced me to The Glenturret back in 2022. I was impressed by the whisky, of course but also by the history of the distillery as well as by the brands profile. As bottles rom The Glenturret was not available in Norway, I started looking out for bottles when I was travelling. And I succeeded in finding smaller shops in places like Washington DC, in Maastricht in the Netherlands, in Switzerland, not to mention London, where the brand is more known. When asking for this brand, I always got positive comments, like "that's a good whisky," "that is good value for money," "hard to get, very rare" accompanied by nods of acknowledgement. I was wondering why this brand had not reached Norway.

During the same period, in my role as a military officer, I was in contact with colleagues in the Ukrainian Army and its military education system. They visited us in Norway, and I together with my team visited them in Kyiv. After a year-long process that had begun before my involvement, we finalised a cooperation agreement, which was signed in Kyiv in late October 2021. War was already looming. During our visit, our Ukrainian hosts proudly served Hetman vodka. The distillery in Lviv had been established after the end of the Cold War, building on the legacy of the original Lviv distillery founded by the Bachevsky family in 1782. Lviv distilleries once supplied royals and aristocrats across Western Europe. Today, Hetman honours that tradition and aims to re-establish itself as a premium vodka brand in Western markets.

Then February 24th, 2022, brought invasion, war and destruction. My visit in late October 2023 took place in a period that was, in retrospect, a prelude to war.

As my military career was approaching its end, by my own choice, that is, I started playing with the idea, to bring Glenturret and Hetman to the Norwegian market. I initiated a dialogue with both companies via email. Having completed registration of Aal the Best AS on May 8th 2024, and obtained the required licences and agreement with Vinmonopolet – the state owned retail monopoly of wine and spirits in the Norwegian home-consumer market – I went to Crieff, Scotland - the home of The Glenturret - in June and obtained an agreement for starting imports to the Norwegian market after to pleasant meetings, or should we say conversations.

I August, same year, I flew to Krakow, Poland and got on a bus to Lviv, where I had meetings with the staff at Hetman, and subsequently we signed a contract.

From October that year, Glenturret has been available in Norway, and from March 2025 Hetman has been introduced by Aal the Best AS.

Premium brands, founded in history, tradition, craft, and premium ingredients. Aal the Best.