Zirbenz Stone Pine Liqueur of the Alps is 35% abv. / 70 proof. It is made in Austria from Arolla Stone Pine fruit from the fresh, young, (not dried out) pine cone. The liqueur is an all natural, limited production, artisinal spirit with seasonal variations for each year. The bottles are numbered and soon online production notes will be available for each batch so you can find out all the details and particulars about the bottle you hold in your hand. My bottle is # 12-06-A04-685.

The body is light with a beautiful, medium red / amber brown color. The aroma is a luscious pine with floral, fruit, and spicy notes. There are hints of sweet, mild turpentine as well. The taste is of strong, floral pine, like chewing on the delicate young spring fronds at the end of a branch. Sweet, hot and cool at the same time, floral and spice flavors peek through here and there leading to a long and complex finish. While traditionally it is sipped from an eau-de-vie glass or snifter, I found it almost overwhelming to sip it straight. On ice it is mellowed quite a bit and you can really appreciate what is going on in the glass. This liqueur might not be for everyone. It is strong and unusual tasting, completely unique, and not for the faint of heart.


This liqueur reminds me of the North Woods of northern Minnesota and Maine. The hot summer days and cool summer nights I spent as a wilderness guide and Outward Bound instructor. Hiking or canoeing all day, then making camp in the coniferous pine and spruce woods in the evening. The sweet, sharp smell of young spruce and the slightly dusty smell of mature pine. Lying back at night hoping for a glimpse of a meteor shower, or even the undulating sheets of the aurora borealis cascading through the night sky. For me it's like the wilderness captured in liquid form, full of quiet life and energy.

The Arolla Stone Pine is known as the "Queen of the Alps", it is strongly respected for the crucial role it plays in helping to prevent avalanches. It only grows at high elevations on the slopes that lead up to the tree line past which hardly anything else grows. The pickers consist of mountaineers and farmers that climb to the high elevations and then scale the trees to pick the wild pine fruit fresh. Only 10%-20% of the fruit is collected from any one tree, and by law only in the areas of Steiermark and Carinthia. If the liqueur is an indicator of what it smells like to be in a pine woods at tree line in the Alps, then I can't wait to visit, just for the aroma alone.