Eau de vie. The name rolls off the tongue even if the spirits don’t fly off the shelf. One of the more obscure categories of spirits, eau de vie is the clear, colorless fruit brandy often relegated to the corners of a bar or tasting room, where tall, slender bottles are detained for later, when the barkeep produces them as an after-dinner digestif.
With exotic names like kirschwasser and slivovitz, these are the diverse, delicious misfits of the spirits world. And they deserve some love.
Alcohol distilled from fruit is broadly classified as brandy. Eau de vie is a European-style brandy that is generally aged in tanks instead of oak, and is bottled clear without any added sugars, differentiating it from the sweeter liqueurs with which it sometimes shares shelf space.
Most distilleries focus on producing the mainstay spirits — your whiskies, gins, and vodkas with bespoke variations. Some will add in an agave spirit, a coffee liqueur or some holiday schnapps. A few will make an apple brandy — great for fall vibes — but rarely does a distillery maximize their fruit-forward production.
But from early on, Glacier Distilling Company in Coram has leaned in.
“Montana, northwest Montana in particular, has a plethora of ingredients that are readily available to us, just kind of right in our backyard,” Glacier Distilling Sales Manager Nate Conner said. “If you had a distillery in the middle of Chicago, you might not necessarily have a small boutique vineyard nearby and odds are that you wouldn’t think about making these kinds of spirits.”
“I just wish more people knew about them.”
Well, let’s dive in.
Glacier Distilling makes five fruit brandies and the niche, esoteric spirits all have storied histories.
Apple brandies are popular and harken to the genesis of America’s distilling history. An abundance of apple trees in the original colonies led to brandy as one of the mainstay spirits in the early states.
Other eau de vie are rooted in European traditions. While any fruit can be distilled, the most traditional suspects for eau de vie are plums, pears, cherries, raspberries and apricots. The fruit is fermented whole, including the pit, which is key to the flavor profile.
“When we first started with our kirschwasser, it wasn’t coming out the way we wanted, it wasn’t a full cherry flavor,” Glacier Distilling production manager Jake Allen said. “The pit is where you get an almond flavor that is key to capturing the entire cherry instead of it tasting like mild cherry juice. We learned that through our early experimentation.”
Cherry brandy, or kirschwasser, originates from the Black Forest region of Germany, while slivovitz, or plum brandy, is popular in central and eastern European countries. In the 1700s, distillers in the Alsace region of France began covering young pears with glass bottles while still on the branch, later filling the bottles with last year’s pear brandy — imprisoning the fruit with its distillation.
Another brandy with a specific nomenclature, grappa, is distilled from grapes and originated as a way for vineyard workers to make their own alcohol from the leftovers of the winemaking process. Using pomace, discarded grape seeds, stalks and stems gives Grappa a decidedly unique flavor profile, especially compared to wine, which utilizes the fruit’s juice.
“With my palate, when I taste grappa, I taste more of the earth, the terroir comes through a little bit more,” Allen said. “You can really kind of taste where the spirit came from.”
That, in essence, is the spirit of eau de vie. A direct tie between orchard and bottle. A sip of kirschwasser might send you into the cherry orchards adorning Flathead Lake. A taste of slivovitz will have you wondering if the plums hanging over your fence from your neighbor’s tree are ripe and ready for picking. It’s that raw, unadulterated flavor that sets eau de vie apart.
For Glacier Distilling’s spirits, the fruit comes almost exclusively from the Flathead Valley. The distillery partners with local orchards to harvest cherries each year, Spotted Bear Vineyards on Flathead Lake’s Finley Point provides grapes for grappa, while Moss Farm on the lakeshore in Rollins provides Honeycrisp apples that turn into apple brandy.
“With a lot of these products, we’re actually going and harvesting them ourselves, which is pretty cool. The nature of us being craft distilleries, what we do is on a small scale. We want to really keep everything as authentic as possible. And what that leads to is working with a lot of other small producers,” Conner said.
Less immediate, but still regional, Williams pears form Washington and Pozegaca plums in Oregon also funnel into Glacier Distilling’s stills.
To deepen the connection between the harvest and the final product, Glacier Distilling started a “Brandy Dandy” festival last year, where locals glean fruit from their neighborhood trees and contribute to a one-off run of Community Shine Fruit Brandy. Last year’s bottle was 65% apple, 20% pear, 10% cherry and 5% plum, a true snapshot of northwest Montana’s pomology.
The Spirits
Gold Miner An apple brandy. Excellent for making hot toddies.
Pear Brandy Requiring 14 pounds of pears to make each bottle, pear brandy is excellent on its own or mixed with some ginger beer with a basil garnish. Conner calls it his “ride-or-die” pick from the lineup for its versatility.
Grappa Also comes in a barrel-aged, honey-infused version called Beargrass, which makes an excellent addition to tea.
Kirschwasser Only 100% perfectly ripened Flathead cherries. Makes a delicious mojito and can be used to punch up any number of summer drinks.
Slivovitz Sippable as is. Also pairs well in a bellini or with grapefruit juice and simple thyme syrup.