nir-vana innovation network

The young Austrian family-owned company, specialized in the production and development of Zirbenschnaps, strives to complete this speciality that has been known in the Alps for many generations.

Zirbenschnaps is an ancient specialty of alpine farmers. The production was done so far almost exclusively
by private mountain farmer families. The schnapps was sold very regionally. This leads to very different
and non-consistent qualities of this product. The awareness was therefore limited only to the own region.
Few tourists were able to get to know this noble product.

The schnapps presents itself in bright, dark red color. The bouquet is very intense in the nose and reminiscent of mountain forest, pine and resin. Taste of essential oil and good medicine on the tongue.

Handmade from exclusively Austrian ingredients as well as in-house development and production.

The production capacity is around 1,000 litres of schnapps per year. This quantity results from the scarce resources of stone pine cones and the time-consuming manual production process.

The design should express the inner quality of the product in the outer appearance of the bottle.

The product is aimed to high-end clients. The company is currently selling through online sales platforms for gourmet products, to gourmet restaurants with professionals of haute cuisine and to retail shops of gourmet products.

The company is already engaged in transnational activities and wishes to expand its distribution channel and start its commercial activity in new countries. They are looking for distributors and / or trade agents of gourmet and delicatessen products to establish a long term distribution service agreement and / or commercial agency agreements with a reliable partner.

Advantages & innovations

The stone pine (Pinus cembra) is a rare tree species that has adapted to the exceptional conditions of the high alpine climate and occurs worldwide only in the Alps and Carpathians. The noblest part of the stone pine, however, is its mature deep purple cones. The essential oils and resins are concentrated in these cones, where they condense to form an intense aromatic experience. They form the basis for the exclusive stone pine schnapps. What makes this family-owned company standing out is the achievement of sensory top quality. The company already maintains business relations with companies from Germany.

Stage of development

Already on the market

Partner sought

The potential partner should have experience in the distribution of gourmet products and an established contact network among which speciality and fine foods retail shop and HORECA channel. The ideal partner would need to have a strong experience of brand building in the spirits field. This Austrian company is looking for distributors and trade agents of gourmet and delicatessen products to expand its transnational activity and reach high-end clients. The company expects its potential business partners from the beverage sector to dispose of good knowledge of their home markets in order to act as commercial agency agreement or distribution services agreement partners. Specific area of activity of the partner: distributors and trade agents who sell to speciality and fine foods retail shops and to HORECA (hotels, restaurants and catering).