When winter arrives in western Austria and the sun disappears all too quickly behind the snow-capped Alps, you can stand in bare orchards and still taste the sun-ripened fruit the trees once bore – just sip a glass of schnapps.
For centuries, farmers in the Tyrol region have been mashing, fermenting and distilling apples, plums, apricots and other fruits into schnapps, a strong spirit most often enjoyed as a digestive. It is sometimes infused with local herbs and plants, such as Austrian stone fruit.
The more than four million tourists who flock to the ski towns of Tyrol like it Seefeld and Ischgl you’ll find around 4,000 schnapps distilleries scattered throughout the region, often just a short distance from the slopes. Not only does this elixir warm the soul. it also provides a strong dose of a deep local tradition.
“When you visit a city, people want to know how we used to live and what we eat and drink today,” he said. Monika Unterholzner, tour guide. In Austria, especially in the Tyrolean mountains, “schnapps is both,” he said. “It’s part of our identity.”
“Where you can welcome your friends”
American schnapps is usually a grain-based spirit with artificial flavors, but in European schnapps, the fruit itself determines the final result, meaning the quality of the ingredients is everything. Distillers hunt down the best products or grow them in their own orchards, where they can watch them ripen on the branch.
“The actual process is very simple,” said Alexander Rainer, who runs it Rochelt distillery in Fritzens, just east of Innsbruck. “And I think the most beautiful things in life are usually not complicated.”
Rochelt’s luxury schnapps business is hidden behind the gates of an unassuming farmhouse in white and green uniforms. Inside, the air is thick with the smell of fermenting fruit.
The Rochelt tradition began in the 1970s when Mr. Rainer’s father-in-law, Günter Rochelt, began distilling in his garage as a hobby. Now, Mr. Reiner runs the business with the same warmth instilled by his mother-in-law, who had a request from her husband when she started the distillery.
“If you’re building your still, just make sure you have a big kitchen and a big place where you can welcome your friends,” he said, as recounted by Mr. Reiner. “Every weekend he had cooking sessions with friends and schnapps.”
Visitors are attracted by proximity medieval castles, modern architecture by the likes of Zaha Hadid and glittering exhibitions at Swarovski crystal seat you can enjoy a tour, tasting and lunch at Rochelt for the friendly price of 60 euros or about $65, a surprisingly good deal considering a bottle of Rochelt schnapps can cost over $300 in the United States.
As the tour began, I was ushered into a bright kitchen and handed a glass of water flavored with a homemade elderflower syrup. A pot of apricot jam bubbled on the stove – a way to use up fruit left over from making schnapps.
Unlike most distilleries in Tyrol, Rochelt does not have its own orchards. Mr. Reiner sources fruit from selected growers in the surrounding areas. Whatever the fruit is, it is left to ripen on the branch, then picked by hand, mashed and fermented. The mash then goes to the still, where visitors can see how it is transformed into a perfectly pure spirit. Even in the dead of winter, Mr. Reiner said, at least one of the four tall, copper stills is churning.
After the tour, we enjoyed lunch in a cozy dining room built from wood salvaged from three 150-year-old farmhouses. The menu included pumpkin soup and then kaiserschmarrn, a type of omelet, served with fresh apricot jam. For the finishing touch, Mr. Reiner sprinkled apricot schnapps over our heads so that the ripe fruit enveloped every sense.
Schnapps is deeply flavorful – as you squeeze some into the tasting glass, the schnapps trails down the sides like wine legs. It’s strong, too: Most varieties are around 150 proof, or about 75 percent alcohol, immediately after distillation. But instead of diluting it with water as most schnapps makers do, Mr. Reiner lets the spirit rest in the attic until the alcohol and fruit flavors balance.
In a dimly lit room under the rafters, he showed us large glass demijohns that line wooden shelves and are covered only with a thin linen cloth. They sit there untouched until a certain percentage of alcohol evaporates – Rochelt’s twist on the “angel’s portion”, or what distillers call the amount of alcohol that disappears while aging in barrels.
Back in the kitchen, workers were busy filling jars with apricot jam, spooning a small amount of schnapps over the top and then lighting them briefly before screwing on the lids – an old-fashioned way of sealing a jar, Mr Reiner said.
Orchards with postcard views
On snowy afternoons, the center of Seefeld, a village northwest of Innsbruck famous for its cross-country skiing, draws tourists to streets lined with cozy shops and alpine lodge-style hotels. Local breweries and traditional inns serve Tyrolean delicacies such as venison and pasta. Children with sleds race down a small hill nearby.
Several of the area’s luxury resorts source their schnapps from Draxl Distillery, across the rushing river Inn from Seefeld. Hubert Draxl oversees the approximately seven and a half acre farm with his wife and parents. The window in the modern wood paneled tasting room inside overlooks the farm and village Inzing below, a postcard view of the church steeple framed among the mountains.
A white tabby cat as Mr Draxle showed off his orchards, walking among 10,000 trees growing plums and six varieties of apples. They formed neat lines down the mountainside, revealing glimpses of the valley below between their bare branches.
The distillery offers guests Tyrolean meals with cheese, freshly baked bread and blot, a type of bacon (meal and tasting, €50), but I only opted for a schnapps tasting. Mr. Draxle pulled elegant glass bottles from a shelf and offered samples.
The idea is that there’s a schnapps for every taste, Mr Draxl said — you just have to find your favourite. It can be a classic apple schnapps or a rarer variety such as rowanberry, the bitter fruit of the mountain ash. The wild berry is unattractive to eat off the branch, but produces a delicious schnapps, in which I tasted notes of oak and marzipan.
Whatever the fruit, every schnapps maker looks for the herzstück, or heart cut, which is the portion of the distilled spirit that has the best flavors and aromas and is most suitable for consumption.
Like Rochelt’s Mr Rainer, Mr Draxl aims to create a warm, inviting space for visitors and locals to enjoy his product. “My aim is for people to go out with a bit more knowledge so when they meet their friends they bring them in,” Mr Draxl said.
A high altitude zing
A variety of plums that stands out in the rocks and cliffs of the Tyrolean Oberland, one of the few that grow at such a high altitude, give the region’s schnapps a unique flavor. Visitors to resorts in the Ischgl area can get a taste of this distinctive fruit at a group of distilleries nearby Landeck.
In the JP Kössler, the owner, Christoph Kössler, leads tours of his modern distillery, with windows facing a precariously perched row of plum trees and the mountains behind them. The space is larger and more industrial than most in Tyrol: The stills have a polished stainless steel exterior over traditional copper, and one wall is lined with Mr. Kössler’s awards and recognitions.
Next door, Mr. Kössler had to duck into the wood-paneled front room of a centuries-old house where the Baroque architect Jacob Predauer (the JP in the Kössler logo) was born in the 17th century. We relaxed until a schnapps made from plums from his own orchard, while Mr. Kössler mixed drinks. A tour and tasting at JP Kössler costs €20 per person.
Mr. Kössler started distilling in 1995 — a time, he said, when there was a renewed interest in distilling a quality product rather than simply using leftover fruit to make schnapps. But he made many mistakes before he succeeded.
“If you’re making schnapps and you want to make good schnapps, you need good fruit,” Mr. Kössler said, “and you have to get it really right on the production side.”
How to get a taste
Most distilleries in Tyrol open their doors to curious visitors. The Tyrolean tourist office offers suggestions for schnapps tours on her website and Tiroler Edelbrand Sommeliersa distillers association, lists dozens of schnapps makers and tasting events on its website.
Before visiting a distillery, check its website for hours and instructions on how to book a tasting — usually by contacting the owner or a government-certified guide. Hotels in Tyrol often offer shuttles throughout the region, but distillery owners also arrange transportation. They might even pick you up themselves.
“When a visitor comes, you give them a snap,” said Ms. Unterholzner, the tour guide. “You greet him with a snap. And you’re proud of the snaps.”