Genepy is the Alpine liqueur. It’s an herb in the wormwood family only found naturally at high elevation in the Alps of France, Italy, Switzerland, and eastward. It’s finnicky, a shrub of a plant, and notoriously hard to cultivate. It blooms at the end of summer, and that’s when you harvest. You don’t take the whole plant, or its roots, just the sprigs. You can forage it, but the rules are pretty strict. In France, for instance, you may forage it in August, but only within 200 meters of the road, and only a certain amount of sprigs.

But it’s worth the effort. Genepy has a singular flavor. Like truffles, genepy tastes like nothing so much as genepy. As it’s a wormwood it’s pretty bitter, but there’s an evergreen quality there, too–a palate-wakening spice and freshness. Genepy liqueur tends to be sweet, and high proof, Chartreuse being maybe the most famous example.

We wanted ours to evoke the classic style. It’s green with a lovely golden cast, slightly less sweet than you find across the category, and 100 proof. It shows the genepy’s spiciness, with notes of lemon verbena, mace, honey, and wormwood.