Schnapps Idea Distillery

Melbourne’s Schnapps Idea Distillery produces some of the best fruit eau de vie we’ve ever tasted. The term schnapps is a funny one, because it can refer either to unflavoured spirits distilled directly from fermented fruit that qualify as unaged fruit brandies, what the French call eau de vie, as well as flavoured spirits and liqueurs (butterscotch schnapps, for example, is very far from a brandy). Schnapps Idea Distillery makes primarily the former, and very well. Fruit brandies of this kind are complex to make – it’s easy to end up with a rotten fruit character because the high sugar content of fruit means fermentation is hard to control. With orchard fruits, oxidation also happens very quickly (no one wants to eat a slice of apple that’s gone brown). So, especially when bottling things without any time in oak to soften and hide rough edges, you must be very careful during distillation, retaining only the best of the spirit. Most of the good stuff from Germany and France has been made in the same place for generations, so it’s even more impressive to see a young distillery produce fruit brandies of such quality. I love this family-owned producer because it epitomises the small-scale passion project producers of Australia’s craft spirits movement, making an esoteric product with little commercial demand simply because they love it and recognise Australia’s outstanding fruit as something to be celebrated in spirits production. I’m not sure they even know how good their products are, so we’re here to tell you, and them, that Aussie fruit brandies like this are brilliant. -FRED SIGGINS