the story of thredbo valley distillery is a tale of the antipodes melding with european tradition.

it's two stories that join into one. one story is of a young man growing up in the fruit belt on the nsw border, working in brad’s father kevin spalding’s business. the other story is of a young austrian woman whose destiny has brought her to a land far away from her forebears.

over a number of years kevin spalding owned the fruit shop, deli, cafe and the granya hotel. a passion for skiing brought the fruit seller and hotelier’s son to austria. years working as an instructor on the ski fields of the the alps in austrian tirol allowed him to refine his taste for the finest schnapps.

the joining of two families – the spalding’s and the landegger’s - was the genesis of australian schnapps production. stephan hagleitner (pictured), monika landegger’s grandfather, was distilling schnapps in the farmyards around the austrian village of kitzbühel long before brad and monika were born. this knowledge has been passed down through the family and is evident in every batch of wildbrumby produced by the thredbo valley distillery.

so, with the fruit seller in his background, schnapps in his veins, austrian tradition in the family, the snowy mountains as their surrounds, and skiing as their passion what could be more natural than launching a distillery to produce the finest australian schnapps to rival the best of europe.

the distilling of schnapps is steeped in centuries of tradition. originally created in central western europe, schnapps distilling is commonplace all over the continent. key to the craft is the distiller, and thredbo valley distillery owner and distiller brad spalding has studied the craft extensively in austria.

in the years leading up to the establishment of the distillery, brad carried out research into the ideal selection of fruits to use in the production of wildbrumby schnapps. the result is a schnapps made in australia from the highest quality australian fruit, to exacting european schnapps production standards.