From Orchard to Glass — A Distiller’s Favourite

There’s something quietly special about pear schnapps.

It doesn’t shout for attention. It draws you in slowly — soft, aromatic, delicate, and beautifully balanced. It’s the kind of spirit that rewards patience, both in the glass and in the making.

And for us, it’s personal.

Pear schnapps has long been our distiller’s favourite — not only to drink, but to produce. There’s a particular satisfaction in working with pears. Their subtle transformation through fermentation and distillation, and that moment when everything comes together into something elegant and unmistakably alpine.

At the heart of our pear schnapps are Williams pears from Shepparton. Juicy, fragrant, and naturally refined, they bring the perfect balance of sweetness, aroma, and character to the spirit.

It Starts Green

One of the most fascinating things about Williams pears is that they’re harvested green.

Unlike many fruits, pears don’t ripen properly on the tree. They’re picked while still firm and bright green, then begin their real transformation after harvest.

Once they arrive at our distillery in the Snowy Mountains, we let them rest in the alpine sun. Over a few days, they gradually shift from green to a beautiful yellow-gold, softening, sweetening, and developing the delicate aromatics that define the final spirit.

“That moment — when the pears shift from green to gold — that’s when the flavour really arrives.”

As our distiller Sebastian explains, without that shift you don’t get the depth or softness we’re looking for.

A Spirit with Alpine Roots

Pear schnapps has deep roots across Central Europe — particularly Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and northern Italy.

Traditionally made in farming communities, it was a way to preserve the autumn harvest through colder months. It became part of mountain hospitality — served after meals, shared with guests, and enjoyed alongside cheese, smoked meats, walnuts, and dark bread.

The most famous style, Williamsbirne, is made from the same Williams pear variety we use today.

That connection between alpine culture and pear schnapps feels especially natural at wildbrumby — a spirit shaped by mountain traditions, patience, and respect for good fruit.

Cocktails That Let the Pear Shine

Pear schnapps is wonderfully versatile, but the best cocktails are the ones that let the fruit speak clearly.

Alpine Pear Spritz

A fresh, bright, and effortless alpine-style spritz.

Quick Facts
Prep time: 2 minutes
Style: Fresh & bright
Skill level: Easy

Ingredients

• 45 ml pear schnapps
• 40 ml pear juice
• 60 ml soda water
• Dash of almond bitters
• Pear slice, to garnish

Method

1. Add ingredients to an ice-filled wine glass.
2. Top with soda water.
3. Gently stir.
4. Garnish with pear slice.

Light, aromatic, and perfect for relaxed alpine afternoons.

Something Gone Pear-Shaped

Silky, structured, and beautifully balanced with subtle spice.

Quick Facts
Prep time: 5 minutes
Style: Silky & citrusy
Skill level: Intermediate

Ingredients

• 45 ml pear schnapps
• 30 ml vodka
• 20 ml lemon juice
• 1 egg white (or aquafaba)
• Black pepper shrub

Method

1. Dry shake all ingredients.
2. Add ice and shake again.
3. Double strain into a chilled coupe glass.

Black Pepper Shrub

• 1 part water
• 1 part vinegar
• 2 parts sugar
• Cracked black pepper

Gently heat, infuse with pepper, then cool and strain.

Elegant, slightly spicy, and surprisingly soft.

Hot Pear Toddy

Warming, comforting, and made for cold mountain evenings.

Quick Facts
Prep time: 5 minutes
Style: Warm & spiced
Skill level: Easy

Ingredients

• 45 ml pear schnapps
• 45 ml white wine (Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc)
• 1 tsp honey
• 100 ml cloudy pear juice
• Cinnamon
• Star anise
• Clove

Method

1. Warm all ingredients gently (do not boil).
2. Strain into a mug.

Best enjoyed warm on a cold night when everything feels slightly more cinematic than necessary.

From Orchard to Glass

Pear schnapps is a spirit defined by patience — from green orchard fruit to golden alpine expression.

It’s subtle, aromatic, and quietly confident — the kind of drink that doesn’t need to announce itself to be remembered.

3 Easy Vodka Cocktails Anyone Can Make

Great cocktails don’t need to be complicated. Sometimes the best drinks are the simplest — when quality ingredients and a beautifully crafted spirit do most of the work.

At Wildbrumby Distillery in the foothills of Australia’s Snowy Mountains, our Kosciuszko Vodka is crafted to shine in exactly these moments. Exceptionally smooth and beautifully refined, it brings a clean alpine character that works just as well in a simple soda as it does in a classic martini.

Below are three easy vodka cocktails you can make at home — each one designed to showcase the silky texture and bright elegance of Kosciuszko Vodka.

The Story Behind Kosciuszko Vodka

Vodka is often described as a neutral spirit — but the truth is, great vodka is anything but neutral. The finest vodkas are defined by their ingredients, distillation technique, and the environment in which they are crafted.

Kosciuszko Vodka begins with a South Australian Chardonnay grape base spirit, giving it a silky texture and refined mouthfeel rarely found in traditional grain vodkas.

The idea began as an experiment between Wildbrumby founder Brad Spalding and renowned Australian wine expert Michael Hill-Smith MW. Together they distilled M3 Chardonnay from Shaw + Smith in the Adelaide Hills in our German-built Kothe still “Florence,” discovering a remarkably smooth spirit with elegant texture and subtle complexity. It was this moment that sparked Brad’s passion for grape-based spirits, and the discovery shaped the direction of many wildbrumby products.

Today, while we no longer use the M3 Chardonnay itself, that philosophy continues. Kosciuszko Vodka is crafted from a South Australian Chardonnay base, but every bottle reflects the clean alpine air, pure water, and independent spirit of the Snowy Mountains.

Kosciuszko Vodka is Pure Australian Alpine Perfection.

Kosciuszko Vodka Cocktail Recipes

More Alpine Cocktail Inspiration

Looking for more cocktail ideas? Explore more Wildbrumby cocktail recipes on our blog, or visit the distillery in the Snowy Mountains to experience our spirits where they are crafted.

Milano Cortina 2026

Alpine reflections on this year’s Winter Games, based on a conversation with Bradley Spalding – Former Ski School Director of Thredbo and Founder of Wildbrumby Distillery. View the full conversation on our YouTube channel here.

There are moments when the mountains seem to stand a little taller.

This year’s Winter Games in Milano Cortina delivered exactly that. Australia’s most successful Winter Olympics ever — not only in the size of our team, but in the glittering weight of medals brought home. Gold, silver, bronze — a bag of them. Proof, as Brad would say, that the pudding is well and truly set.

We couldn’t be prouder.

And here at Wildbrumby, nestled in Thredbo Valley between the lake and the mountains, our cheer rings out for all our Winter Olympians, but especially for local Jindy legends: Josie Baff, Adam Lambert, and Abbey & Charlotte Wilson. To see homegrown Snowy Mountains athletes standing on the world stage in Italy — the spiritual heartland of alpine sport — feels beautifully full circle.

Then and Now

When Australia travelled to the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo — only our second Winter Games — we sent just ten athletes.

Among the team was our dear friend Frank Prihoda. Originally from Czechoslovakia, Frank was selected for the Slalom and Giant Slalom events from a small pool of Aussie athletes. The team was coached by Austrian Leonard Erharter (who later returned to Thredbo to become its very first ski school director). Hopes weren’t high for the Australian team to win any medals. The competition was fierce and the snow scarce at the 1956 Games. While he didn’t finish near the podium, Frank would later become Australia’s oldest living Olympian, carving up the slopes of Thredbo well into his nineties.

Fast forward seventy years.

Back to Italy — now hosting the Winter Games for the third time — snowboarding has been an official Olympic sport since 1998. Australia arrived with 54 athletes and returned home with six medals, including three gold. One of them was claimed by Jindabyne’s own Josie Baff in the Women’s Snowboard Cross.

From a team of ten to a powerhouse of fifty-four.
What a journey.

A Milestone for Australia

Brad, former Ski School Director of Thredbo and founder of Wildbrumby, has watched Australian winter sport grow from hopeful beginnings to world-class performance.

“This was the most successful Winter Games Australia’s ever had,” he reflects. “Not just the number of participants, but the medals. Quite incredible. It’s a real milestone.”

For decades, the world has seen Australia as swimmers and runners. A summer sporting nation. But Australians are sports-mad — and adaptable. Snowboarding and freestyle disciplines, in particular, have captured our national psyche. There’s something in that blend of creativity, courage and edge that suits us. Perhaps a little crossover from our surfing culture. A willingness to take the line less travelled.

And now, the results speak for themselves.

The Vision That Built Champions

Much of this success traces back to a simple, powerful idea.

Sport and Recreation in Jindabyne began as a school-based skiing program. Each winter season, students from the region and around New South Wales would come to the mountains, stay at camp, learn to ski, discover the alpine world. It was grassroots. It was inclusive. It planted seeds.

Over time, that seed grew into a world-class Olympic training facility.

“Whoever said in the early days, ‘We’re going to dedicate this land to winter sport,” Brad says that was a person of incredible vision. “The amount of infrastructure and the training expertise that they put into that facility is definitely paying dividends – in gold medals.”

Facilities matter. Coaching matters. Pathways matter. But behind every athlete stands something even stronger.

Family.

Look at Josie Baff. Snow sports run through her family like snow melt through the Thredbo River. Parental support is more important even than funding and facilities. Pete and Petrina Baff devoted their lives to ski schools and snowboarding. Brad recalls that Pete and Petrina Baff have been involved in snow sports in Australia for many years. “Pete was a ski instructor in the early days and then became a snowboard instructor.” That love of snowboarding was passed on and became family culture. That culture became legacy. And that legacy now stands on the Olympic podium.

From activity to identity.
From passion to performance.

What It Takes

To be an Olympian — medal or not — is something rare.

“Whether you didn’t finish or win a medal, that really doesn’t matter. To be an Olympian is something really special,” says Brad, “You’ve worked incredibly hard just to make the grade.”

Frank knew it in 1956.
Our 2026 team knows it now.

Discipline. Resilience. Early mornings. Cold days. Falls and fractures and fierce determination. The mountain rewards those who return, again and again, to try.

A Community Moment

Across Jindabyne and the Snowy Mountains, there’s a quiet electricity. Pride. Inspiration. Excitement for what comes next.

The more medals Australia wins, the more winter sport earns recognition and support. The pathways are stronger now. The infrastructure is in place. The next generation is watching.

France awaits in four years’ time.

And here in the Snowy Mountains, we are ready.

At Wildbrumby, our story is stitched between Austria and Australia. Between old-world alpine tradition and new-world mountain grit. Watching Australia rise in Milano Cortina — a place so close to our European heritage — feels deeply personal.

From Frank in 1956.
To Josie in 2026.

From ten athletes to fifty-four.
From hopeful beginnings to Olympic-sized joy.

The torch passes. The mountains remain. And the spirit endures.

So let’s raise a glass of schnapps in celebration and congratulations:

Here’s to our Winter Athletes.
Here’s to the Snowy Mountains.
Here’s to adventure.

See you in the Snowy Mountains soon!

 

Some releases just feel meant to be. To mark the Year of the Fire Horse, we’ve bottled something a little bold, a little untamed, and very much worth raising a glass to. Meet Golden Stallion Vodka — a limited-edition release that celebrates forward momentum, good fortune, and riding your own path.

Golden Stallion is a spirited twist on our wildbrumby Kosciuszko Vodka, sharing the same chardonnay-grape base and alpine clarity — but with a fire-lit edge. Infused with orange for brightness, ginger for warmth, and kumquat for a subtle nod to Lunar New Year prosperity, it finishes with a flicker of native mountain pepper that lingers long after the sip.

The result? Vibrant on the nose, silky on the palate, and warming in all the right ways. Smooth enough to sip neat, complex enough to carry a cocktail, and rare enough that when it’s gone — it’s really gone. With the wildbrumby stallion on the label, this one was always destined to run with the Fire Horse.

Fire Horse Fortune
Product: Golden Stallion Vodka

Golden Hoof Spritz
Product: Golden Stallion Vodka and Fever-Tree Yuzu & Lime Soda