Specialty Perries

From juices to fine spirits. - The Perry Road offers a variety of exquisite beverages made out of pears.

Using the most modern fruit-processing techniques, the highly committed and creative specialists along the Perry Road in the Mostviertel in Lower Austria transform fruit into delightful beverages that include juices and liqueurs, fine spirits and above all, perry.

Perry pear trees

Mostviertel perry pears are not cultivated on fruit plantations, but grow and ripen on some 300,000 tall pear trees. A typical specimen can live to be up to 200 years old and yield up to 1,000 kilograms of pears. The pear trees in the Mostviertel are especially lovely in April when they are in full blossom.

From pears to perry

The production of perry is just as complex as winemaking. High-quality fruit is picked by hand and thoroughly washed before pressing. The juice is then placed in barrels to ferment for two to eight weeks before being filtered and clarified into a state that is ready for drinking.

The taste of perry

The light yellow to amber-colored beverage tastes of fresh fruit and comes in four different flavor categories, from sweet to very dry. Perry has a low alcohol content ranging from four to eight percent.

Sweet to savory

Other typical specialties from the Perry Road are marmalades, chocolates, dried fruits, pear balsamic vinegar and sheep’s cheese.

Fine spirits

People along the Perry Road are also expert in transforming fruit, vegetables and grains into fine spirits. Several of the distilleries along the Perry Road are among the best in Austria and have also won acclaim abroad.

Josef Farthofer, distiller of fine spirits and owner of the “Mostelleria – the Mysterious World of the Perry Pear” in Oed-Oehling, for example, won a gold medal at the International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC) in London in 2012 with his Organic Vodka. This premium vodka is therefore considered one of the best in the world.

Georg Hiebl, distiller of fine spirits from Haag, won the Alpine Whisky Challenge in 2012 in the category “spelt wheat” with his four-year-old spelt-malt whisky. Hiebl is also renowned for the spirits he makes out of tomatoes, for example, or paprika, red beets or rose hips. His range of more than 100 different fine spirits and liqueurs includes porcini schnapps and chocolate-chili liqueur, coconut-pineapple liqueur, rum and vodka.