Several days have passed since the NAIS Brandy Festival, held on April 18 at the Officers' Club in Niš, yet the impressions are still fresh. For MIKO, this was a special moment — the first time we presented our quince brandy to the public in southern Serbia, at a festival that was itself a premiere for the city.
The First Festival of Its Kind in Niš
Under the slogan Merak i ja, the NAIS Festival brought together more than 20 carefully selected Serbian distilleries, along with representatives of related industries — barrel and equipment manufacturers, food producers and makers of local delicacies. Organized by the Niš Tourist Organization and the Sustainable Land association, the festival was conceived as the first specialized event of its kind in Niš and southern Serbia. That is why we are especially pleased to have taken part in Niš's inaugural brandy festival!
Quince Brandy Before a New Audience
Following the Kazannova Festival in Novi Sad and our international presentation at ProWein, NAIS was an opportunity for MIKO quince brandy to appear before an audience in southern Serbia for the first time — a region with its own deep brandy tradition, but where our particular quince brandy was still a novelty.
Although plum brandy was often what drew people to our stand, after a short presentation of the MIKO brand, visitors were happy to focus on quince brandy. Quince brandy was not unfamiliar to them — it is a category they know well — but ours was, specifically, a first encounter for most. Conversations at the stand often began with the question of where we get so much quince, and the answer that MIKO has the Balkans' largest quince orchard, with its own estate in the Aleksandrovac Župa region, was usually enough to spark additional curiosity before visitors brought the glass to their lips.
Why Festivals Like This Matter
Events such as the NAIS Festival matter not only because of sales or direct contact with consumers — they build a local scene and a culture of gathering around brandy as a high-quality product and as a brand. For a new distillery like MIKO, this is also an opportunity to position our quince brandy in new parts of Serbia, where fruit brandy is statistically much less popular than plum brandy. We also enjoy hearing the positive comments and reactions of people tasting MIKO for the first time!
What We Take Forward
With the Kazannova Festival, ProWein and now the NAIS Festival behind us, MIKO continues to build its presence in more and more places, from major international trade fairs to new local events like this one. Every upcoming festival is an opportunity for someone else to try our quince brandy for the first time — and, we hope, become its newest fan.
Explore the MIKO brandy range and find out where you can buy them.
