Larch Crest Spirit

About the Larch Crest Spirit

To make the Larch maceration, a handful of freshly picked Larch crest shoots during bloom time is immersed per 1 liter alcohol for four to six weeks. After the ingredients have passed over into the alcohol through the maceration process, the Larch maceration is meticulously filtered and subsequently cautiously distilled.

The pure Larch distillate is then stored and matured for at least another two years before being bottled. This is how this real Tyrolean specialty with the incomparable taste of the beauty and wild Tyrolean mountainous alpine world comes into being.

Worth-to-know facts about the “leafy pine tree”

The European Larch (larix decidua) grows in the pure mountain air of Tirol even at an altitude of 1,700m. It blossoms between April and May and, during this time, develops the sought-after Larch crest shoots – the sprouts at the end of the top branches. Although the Larch is part of the Pine tree family, it grows leaves and not needles, which it sheds in late Autumn. The trees can reach a growth-height of up to 50 meter and the ripe old age of around 600 years – in the South Tyrolean Ultental three Larch trees have even achieved an estimated age of 850 years!

Larch wood is the heaviest and hardest wood type among the European Pine trees and is used for construction purposes and furniture. The wood is also applied in water, bridge and boat construction, because of its weatherproof qualities and its hardiness. The best Larch turpentine and consequently valuable turpentine oil is acquired from freshly secreting resin of the European Larch.

The German word “Wipfel” , here translated with crest or sprout, refers to the top, moving part of the tree; it is derived from the Middle High German verb “wipfen” (to move in a swinging way, to leap) and is found in the later derivation of “Wippe”, see-saw.