Sitting in the heritage lounge room at the Hyatt Hotel, surrounded by some of Canberra's wealthiest residents, I'm shocked they let me in the door.
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My colleague and I have put on our best grown-up girl outfits to come out on a freezing Thursday evening for a small taste of my mum's favourite distillery, Wildbrumby.
The lounge is already filled with people shrugging off coats as a fire crackles in the corner of the room.
Brad Spalding, founder of Wildbrumby, personally hands us a glass of their Gluhwein, the German version of mulled or hot wine, and the heat quickly seeps into my frozen fingers.
Bottles of Wildbrumby's schnapps are lined up on a table in a rainbow array, with skis leaning against the fireplace and comfy leather armchairs squeezed into the lounge.
We've barely sat down before Brad is regaling guests with stories of shenanigans in the Austrian Alps, where he worked as a ski instructor.
It was in Alps he gained an appreciation for schnapps, an alcohol that was popular around the same time as perms and blow-outs, but is now making a comeback in Australia's spirit carts.
It was schnapps plus controlled hip movements that helped Brad keep up with the Austrian skiers, he says.
We're a captive audience as Sebastian Druege, the distillery's manager, starts pouring small glasses of the distillery's schnapps.
![A line of schnapps glasses on a ski board. Picture supplied A line of schnapps glasses on a ski board. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/232169416/23b6c300-b1a8-4c32-abfb-2e051590c8ed.png/r0_0_1184_666_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
We start with the pear schnapps. I don't like pear; I hate it in fact; but this could convert me. It's sweet and smooth, and goes down all too quickly.
The next pour is peach schnapps, a pale liquor with just a tinge of gold. We sip, and I feel like I'm sitting outside a mountain cabin in an Austrian summer, with a sweet breeze from the peach orchard washing over me. It's heaven.
It's all glasses on board from then on out. We try the apple, raspberry (not my favourite), limoncello (not technically schnapps but still delicious), and butterscotch.
Schnapps is a drink for a sweet tooth, and as versatile as they come. The baked apple schnapps comes with whipped cream and cinnamon on top, and tastes like a liquid apple pie. We imagine pouring butterscotch schnapps over ice cream, and my mouth waters.
The liquor isn't as strong as a normal spirit, with most of Wildbrumby's schnapps sitting at 18.5 per cent.
Sebastian came to Australia as a backpacker from Bavaria, Germany, his "one-season job" now in its 11th year. The way Brad tells it, Sebastian knocked on their door one day asking for a job, and was hired on the spot once they found out he was a chef.
Sebastian is now an integral part of the distillery's signature drink, bringing a touch of Germany to the Australian Alps.
![Some of Wildbrumby's schnapps. Picture supplied Some of Wildbrumby's schnapps. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/232169416/3c4408dd-4c38-418b-8145-65780a5ca836.png/r0_0_1178_785_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Brad shows us how to drink schnapps in the traditional way, a glass balanced between pinky and thumb. For every drink you throw back, you swap your pinky for the next finger down, and when you run out of fingers, you swap to the other hand.
Suited waiters bring out martinis mixed with Wildbrumby vodka and apple schnapps; by that point I'm having to put my glass down.
Schnapps hails from the mountain regions of Switzerland, Austria and Germany, made by farmers in the winter months when there wasn't much to do.
Wildbrumby is the only schnapps distillery in Australia, and also one of the highest distillers in the country, sitting at 2000 metres in the Snowy Mountains.
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Brad warns us to keep our peach schnapps in the fridge for longevity.
"Every time you open the door and the light in the fridge comes, it's time to have another schnapps," he says.
He's joking (I hope) but the drink is so delicious I'm half tempted to follow his suggestion.
You can visit the Wildbrumby distillery on the Alpine Way, halfway between Jindabyne and Thredbo.