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

It’s about time for a long schnappy lunch. Weekends are made for resting, recuperating and rejuvenating. And summer long weekends? They’re basically a holiday for your soul. It’s your time to get out in the sunshine, soak up some much-needed vitamin D, and forget about the inbox for a while. Why not dial up the relaxation by treating yourself to a long lunch with friends — complete with a table full of schnapps spritzers to toast this beautiful land we call home?

We’ve rounded up our schnappiest summer favourites to take your weekend brunches from nice to next-level.

Mango Madness
Product: Mango schnapps and Kosciuszko Vodka

Fuzzy Navel
Products: Peach Nectar schnapps and orange juice

Italian Lemonade
Products: Limoncello and Wildbrumby Classic Gin

Donner and Blitz
Products: Devil’s Tongue schnapps

G&T
Product: Wildbrumby Classic Gin and Fever-Tree Indian Tonic

It’s that time of year to run through the schnappy checklist.

Stocked up on seasonal Sour Cherry schnapps – check. Gifted your Secret Santa a 60ml surprise pack – check. Bought the Seriously Sparkling Christmas Pack to add extra festive cheer to your celebrations – check. Added Christmas Gin to the “just-in-case” shelf – check. Hidden a bottle somewhere unexpected for future-you to discover – check. Spare bottle for Santa – check.

Now, what to do with all that schnapps?

At wildbrumby, that’s our favourite question. The easy answer is “just drink it”, of course. But if you’d like to get creative—and seriously impress your family and friends this holiday season—we’ve mixed up some “Schnappy Hour” Christmas cocktails that are ready to become your new go-to’s for every festive celebration. Check them out below.

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Santa’s Baked Apple Fizz
Product: ‘Catch Me’ Gingerbread Man Baked Apple
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Sour Cherry Slam
Products: Christmas Gin and Sour Cherry schnapps
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Sunrise on Christmas Day
Products: Kosciuszko Vodka and ‘Catch Me’ Gingerbread Man Baked Apple
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Candy Cane Martini
Products: Kosciuszko Vodka and Peppermint
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Lady Marmalade
Product: Classic Gin
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Elf Juice
Products: Classic Gin and Limoncello
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Saint Nic’s Spritz
Products: Christmas Gin and Sour Cherry schnapps
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We know, we know… when most people think of a spritz, they picture an Aperol by a Venetian canal or a Limoncello on the Amalfi Coast. But did you know the word spritz actually comes from the German for “splash”? It was Austrian travellers who first lightened Italian wine with a dash of soda. Incidentally, the Austrians are also instrumental in the founding of Wildbrumby schnapps…See, where we’re going here?

So, if the spritz isn’t purely an Italian invention, but was inspired by Austrians, we reckon us Aussies deserve a turn to give it a little Wildbrumby schnappy twist of our own.

This season, we’re turning to Wildbrumby Peach Nectar, Limoncello, and Pink Lady Apple Schnapps to create spritzers and sours that taste like sunshine in a glass. From zesty sours to summer sun-toned spritzers, these refreshing cocktails will have you raising a toast to the bright days ahead. Interested in trying these cocktails at home? Our Spring Spritzer 500ml bundle containing 2 x Peach Nectar schnapps, 2 x Limoncello, and 2 x Pink Lady Apple schnapps, includes one FREE bottle!

Because when life gives you sunshine… it’s time to slip, slop, and spritz!

Peach Perfect

45 ml Wildbrumby Peach Nectar Schnapps
30 ml Rubus Patch Gin
30 ml Peach Puree
15 ml Fresh Lemon Juice
Chickpea juice or vegan Wonderfoam Cocktail Foamer

Method:

• Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.
• Add all ingredients and shake it vigorously for 30seconds.
• Strain into a coupe glass.

Italian Lemonade

45 ml Wildbrumby Limoncello
30 ml Classic Gin
20 ml Fresh Lemon Juice
Top up with Indian Tonic

Method:

• Fill a large wine glass with ice.
• Add schnapps, gin and lemon juice and stir gently.
• Top up with Indian Tonic water.
• Garnish with a slice of lemon and a sprig of fresh rosemary.

Orchard Spritz

45 ml Wildbrumby Pink Lady Apple Schnapps
30 ml Kosciuszko Vodka
Fever Tree Ginger Ale
15 ml Fresh Lemon Juice
Dash of simple syrup

Method:

• Fill a large wine glass with ice.
• Add schnapps, vodka, simple syrup and lemon juice and stir gently.
• Top up with ginger ale.
• Garnish with slices of pink lady apple and fresh mint.

On Saturday 4th October 2025, we are celebrating over a decade of Oktoberfests held at Wildbrumby Distillery! We asked Chris Wall from the Cooma District Band, how the band came to be involved with the annual Oktoberfest, and why it’s a great day out for the whole family.

How did the Cooma District Band become involved with Oktoberfest at Wildbrumby?

About 15 or 20 years ago I would think it was, we found a book, “Alles Stimmung”, in the band’s music stores, with 10 well known Bavarian style songs and tunes. At the time we had a few German speakers in the band, and so we gathered a bit more music, and put on an Oktoberfest…I think it was at the Air Rifle club in Cooma, which had a German background. We asked Monika and Brad (the founders of Wildbrumby) if they were interested, and we have been a fixture on the October long weekend ever since, and we love it.

What kind of music do you play?

I think it was thanks to Monika we became “The Wildbrumby Oombahbah Band”. Over the last 20 years we have gathered more and more German/Austrian/Oompah style music. When we found out Monika grew up in Kufstein, and we had “Kufsteinlieder” in our music, we really had to add that to the list. I believe it has words about how beautiful the town is, and it is a lovely lyrical waltz. There are some common themes (in the list): “If the water in the Rhine was Golden Wine”, “You can’t be true to me”… largely related to drinking and what can happen after drinking!

But you don’t have to drink like the composers of those songs to enjoy a day at Wildbrumby. One of the great things is that we so often have an enthusiastic audience, but it is never rowdy nor unpleasant as you can get at other venues. It is always a great family day with Oompah music, dancing, singing, kids running about, and great schnapps, beer and food.

Are there games for the kids?

We usually bring some toy horses and have a mad kids’ “gallop” that gets faster and faster. There are always percussion instruments to play, and we find the under 7’s are often the most enthusiastic. This year our bass drummer is away, so there is an opportunity for someone to play along with the band. Sometimes we have kids who play an instrument sit in and follow the music while mum and dad relax on the grass and have a schnapps or something from the Wildbrumby “Hoffbrauhaus”.

And, of course, there is always a “Chicken Dance” for young and old, waltzes, polkas, and a “Schuplattler” – a bit of group thigh slapping, best done with a Tyrolean hat.

We plan a bit of a sing along…Edelweiss, and some songs in German…and just doing your best with the pronunciation is fine!

The event details:

Dress up and come along. As one of our songs translates: “I’d rather wear a Tyrolean Hat”. We are outside, and people are coming and going as they please.

And it’s all free, put on by Wildbrumby.

The band will play from 11:30 to 4:30 on Sat 4 October, so come along and enjoy (and pray for good weather).

Chris Wall

Wildbrumby Oombahbah Band (know at other times as Cooma District Band)      

Bookings for lunch and afternoon tea are highly recommended. 

To reserve a table at the stillhouse cafe, we recommend you contact the distillery by phone between 10am and 11am, or 3pm and 5pm on (02) 6457 1447.

You can also email info@wildbrumby.com.