THE DISCOVERY
In 1852, winegrower Georg Kreuzberg purchases a vineyard in Germany's Eifel region at an auction. But Kreuzberg finds that his grapes do poorly in the vineyard. He quite literally gets to the bottom of things by digging down into the soil, where he finds an underground spring 50 feet below the surface – with top-quality mineral water and carbonation straight from the spring itself.
Kreuzberg taps the spring and names it after Saint Apollinaris, who is actually the patron saint of wine.
Apollinaris mineral water gains quickly in popularity. By 1860, 40,000 clay jugs filled with Apollinaris mineral water have been sold. Ten years later, it is almost two million jugs.
In 1876, following Kreuzberg's death, his descendents found a company named after the Apollinaris spring – the "Actiengesellschaft Apollinarisbrunnen, vormals Georg Kreuzberg".
