Touch the Sky – Reisetbauer Wild Cherry

In this case, Reisetbauer did not get wild cherries for their eau de vie for six years. However, the wild cherry eau de vie is now back in very limited quantities! I am very lucky to have a bottle on hand.

After running out of stock in 2015, Reisetbauer managed to source some wild cherries from a German tree nursery in 2019. Yet, it took until 2025 until the new vintage made its way into the bottle. As always with Reisetbauer’s eau de vies, the wild cherry is bottled at an ABV of 41,5 %.

Cherry with balanced marzipan

As you would expect, the aroma of the wild cherry eau de vie is dominated by intense notes of dark cherry. At first, I thought I could detect a slight hint of cherry blossom. However, after a few minutes, the marzipan flavour of the cherry pits came through. I am often sceptical about fruit pit aromas in eau de vie, as they often mask more delicate flavours. Here, however, the note is very well integrated. All in all, the eau de vie comes off more balanced and less ‘on the nose’ than I would have expected.

A slight Martini variation

Obviously, it is hard to come up with a cocktail that does justice to the price and quality of the Reisetbauer Wild Cherry. I thought that a Vodka Martini would be the perfect ‘almost blank’ canvas for the eau de vie to shine. So I added just a barspoon to a wetter Martini variation. To round everything off, I added a few sprays of the The Seventh Sense Morgentau Bitters.

This Martini variation starts with vermouth and a touch of cherry. The whole is very delicate, just the way I intended it to be. The combination of vodka and semi-dry vermouth also kind of reminded me a bit of olives. All in all, I was quite happy with this rather special cocktail.

*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. I received the eau de vie for free from Reisetbauer