From Joseph Nusbaumer to the living cultural heritage of Alsace
In 1947, Joseph Nusbaumer founded his distillery in the village of Steige, in the heart of the Val de Villé — a valley in the Alsatian Vosges that has been considered the cradle of distillation in Alsace for centuries. What began as a one-man artisanal operation with deep roots in the fruit and plant world of his homeland is now a family-run business with around 15 employees. Today, Christian and Marianne Willm, née Nusbaumer, manage the distillery — the family name remains the guiding principle. Over the decades, the distillery has preserved its artisanal character without closing itself off to modernization.
The fact that the house has not remained in obscurity is proven by a state award: Jos. Nusbaumer carries the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant label — "Living Heritage Company" — a recognition by the French state for exceptional artisanal expertise. Their spirits are internationally known, and distribution is deliberately handled through a selective network of chosen retailers.
Copper stills, Vosges forests, and the primacy of fruit
The Vallée de Villé is located at a medium mountain altitude, and the continental climate brings hot summers and cold winters — both of which favor the cultivation of aromatically dense fruits. The distillery has sourced its raw materials from this environment since its founding: pears, cherries, mirabelles, raspberries, and plums, but also wild fruits and botanicals from the surrounding forests — rose hips, sloes, elderberries, holly berries, caraway seeds, and fir shoots. Distillation in copper alambics is the artisanal heart of the operation. Ripe fruits are carefully selected, fermented, and then distilled; depending on the product, a maturation period in wooden barrels follows.
The distillery does not see its new product lines — a mountain gin and a French aquavit — as a reaction to fashion trends, but as a consistent continuation of the same craft: the distillation of fruits and plants. Even details like the in-house hand-press printing of the labels stand for an attitude that does not let care end at the bottle filling.
Eaux-de-vie with depth — from classic fruit to aged Kirsch
The range includes over fifty references, with the classic eaux-de-vie made from Alsatian fruits forming the core. The Framboise shows what a pure raspberry spirit can achieve: clear fruit without sweetness, direct and precise. The Mirabelle brings the golden-yellow plum of Alsace into the bottle — fine, with the pit, without frills. The Poire Williams Sélection works with the full aromatics of ripe Williams pears; anyone who knows the bottle with the inserted fruit knows how serious Nusbaumer is about the raw material. Particularly revealing is the Vieux Kirsch: wood barrel aging over many years shapes a cherry spirit that goes far beyond the raw material — depth, complexity, long finish. All distillates are suitable neat, slightly chilled, as a digestif, or to accompany cheese and dark chocolate.
