Snowy peaks, rushing rivers and schnapps to warm your soul

When winter arrives in western Austria and the sun all too quickly disappears behind the snow-capped Alps, you can stand in barren 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 pureed, fermented and distilled apples, plums, apricots and other fruits into schnapps, a strong drink mainly consumed as a digestif. Sometimes it is infused with local herbs and plants, such as Austrian stone pine fruit.

The more than four million tourists who flock to Tyrolean ski towns like it Seefeld And Ischgl you'll find around 4,000 schnapps distilleries spread across the region, often just a short drive from the slopes. This elixir not only warms the soul; it also offers a strong dose of deep local tradition.

“When you visit a city, people want to know how we lived in the past, and what we eat and drink today,” he says. Monika Unterholzner, a guide. In Austria, especially in the mountains of Tyrol, “schnapps is both,” she said. “It's part of our identity.”

'Where you can welcome your friends'

American schnapps is usually a grain-based, artificially flavored drink, but with European schnapps, the fruit itself determines the end result, meaning the quality of the ingredients is everything. Distillers search for 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,” says Alexander Rainer, who heads the company Rochelle distillery in Fritzens, just east of Innsbruck. “And I think the most beautiful things in life are usually not complicated.”

Rochelt's luxury schnapps production company is hidden behind the gates of a modest, white and green trimmed farmhouse. Inside, the air is thick with the smell of fermenting fruit.

The tradition at Rochelt began in the 1970s, when Mr. Rainer's father-in-law, Günter Rochelt, started distilling as a hobby in his garage. Now Mr. Rainer runs the business with the same warmth passed on by his mother-in-law, who had one request from her husband when he founded the distillery.

“When you build your distillery, make sure you have a big kitchen and a big place where you can welcome your friends,” she said, as Mr. Rainer told it. “Every weekend he had cooking sessions with friends and schnapps.”

Visitors are drawn to the neighborhood medieval castles, contemporary architecture by Zaha Hadid, among others, and sparkling exhibitions in the Swarovski crystal headquarters can enjoy a tour, tasting, and meal in Rochelt for the friendly price of 60 euros, or about $65, a surprisingly good deal considering that a bottle of Rochelt schnapps can cost more than $300 in the United States.

As the tour began, I was led into a bright kitchen and handed a glass of water flavored with homemade elderberry syrup. A jar of apricot jam was bubbling on the stove – a way to use the fruit left over from making schnapps.

Unlike most distilleries in Tyrol, Rochelt does not have its own orchards. Mr Rainer instead sources fruit from selected growers in the surrounding regions. Whatever the fruit, it is left to ripen on the branch, then hand-picked, mashed and fermented. The mash then goes to the distillery, where guests can watch it transform into a completely clear drink. Even in the depths of winter, Mr. Rainer said, at least one of the four tall copper cauldrons is churning.

After the tour, we enjoyed lunch in a cozy dining room, built from wood sourced from three 150-year-old farmhouses. On the menu was pumpkin soup followed by kaiserschmarrn, a kind of stir pancake, served with fresh apricot jam. As a finishing touch, Mr. Rainer sprinkled apricot schnapps over our heads, allowing the ripe fruit to envelop every sense.

Schnapps is very tasty; if you drink a small tasting glass, schnapps will leave marks on the sides, just like wine legs. It is also strong: most varieties contain an alcohol content of about 150% immediately after distillation, or about 75 percent alcohol by volume. But instead of diluting it with water, as most schnapps makers do, Mr. Rainer lets the spirit rest in the attic until the alcohol and fruit flavors are better balanced.

In a dimly lit room under the rafters he showed us large glass demijohns lined with wooden planks and covered with only a thin linen cloth. They sit there untouched until a certain percentage of alcohol evaporates – Rochelt's spin on the “angel's share,” or what distillers call the amount of alcohol that disappears during aging in barrels.

Back in the kitchen, workers were busy filling jars with apricot jam, spooning a small amount of schnapps on top and setting it alight briefly before screwing on the caps – an old-fashioned way of finishing a jar. close, said Mr. Rainer.

Orchards with a postcard view

On snowy afternoons, the center of Seefeld, a village northwest of Innsbruck famous for cross-country skiing, draws tourists to streets lined with charming shops and alpine lodge-style hotels. Local breweries and traditional inns serve Tyrolean delicacies such as game and dumplings. Children with sleds run down a small hill nearby.

Several of the luxury resorts in the area source their schnapps from the Draxl Distillery, just across the rushing River Inn from Seefeld. Hubert Draxl oversees the approximately seven and a half hectare farm together with his wife and parents. The window in the modern, wood-paneled tasting room overlooks the farm and village Sing in Below is a postcard with the church tower framed between the mountains.

A white cat darted by as Mr. Draxl showed off his orchards, walking among the 10,000 trees growing plums and six varieties of apples. They formed neat lines along the mountainside, revealing glimpses of the valley below through their bare branches.

The distillery offers visitors Tyrolean meals with cheese, freshly baked bread and fleck, a kind of bacon (meal and tasting, €50), but I opted for just a schnapps tasting. Mr. Draxl pulled sleek glass bottles from a shelf and offered samples.

The idea is that there is a schnapps for every taste, Mr. Draxl said – you just have to find your favorite. It can be a classic apple schnapps, or a rarer variant, for example rowan, the bitter fruit of the mountain ash. The wild berry is unattractive to eat from the branch, but produces a delicious schnapps in which I tasted notes of oak and marzipan.

Regardless of the fruit, every schnapps maker looks for the herzstück, the heart piece, the part of the distilled alcohol that has the best flavors and aromas and is most suitable for drinking.

Like Mr Rainer from Rochelt, Mr Draxl wants to create a warm, welcoming space where visitors and locals can enjoy his product. “My goal is for people to come out with a little more knowledge, so that when they meet their friends, they can bring them in,” Mr. Draxl said.

A song at great heights

A plum variety characteristic of the cliffs and rocks of the Tyrolean Oberland, one of the few that grows at such a high altitude, gives the area's schnapps a unique taste. Visitors to resorts in the Ischgl area can sample this distinctive fruit at a cluster of distilleries nearby Landeck.

Bee JP Kossler, the owner, Christoph Kössler, leads tours of his modern distillery, lined with windows overlooking a precariously perched row of plum trees and the mountains beyond. The space is larger and more industrial than most in Tyrol: the stills have a gleaming stainless steel exterior over the traditional copper, and one wall is covered with Mr. Kössler's awards and recognitions.

Next door, Mr. Kössler had to stoop to enter the wood-paneled front room of a centuries-old house where the Baroque architect Jakob Prandtauer (the JP on the Kössler logo) was born in the 17th century. We had a nice time with 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 new interest in distilling a quality product rather than just using leftover fruit by making schnapps. But he made many mistakes before he got it right.

“If you make schnapps and you want to make good schnapps, you need good fruit,” Mr. Kössler said, “and then you have to do really well in terms of production.”

How to taste

Most distillers in Tyrol open their doors to curious visitors. The Tyrolean Tourist Office offers suggestions for schnapps tours on its website, and Tyrolean Edelbrand sommeliersan association of distillers, lists dozens of schnapps makers and tastings on its website.

Before visiting a distillery, check the website for opening hours and instructions for booking a tasting, usually by contacting the owner or a government-certified guide. Hotels in Tyrol often offer shuttles around the region, but distillery owners also arrange transportation. They might even pick you up themselves.

“When a guest comes over, you give him a schnapps,” says Ms. Unterholzner, the guide. 'You welcome him with a schnapps. And you're proud of the schnapps.'