Ingredients
A conventual recipe built on thirty-four alpine herbs and roots, distilled and infused separately and then married and rested in wood — closer in spirit to Chartreuse than to a sweet Italian amaro.
- ✦Mountain wormwood
- ✦Hyssop
- ✦Melissa
- ✦Alpine mint
- ✦Sage
- ✦Thyme
- ✦Angelica root
- ✦Gentian
- ✦Juniper
- ✦Coriander
- ✦Cinnamon
- ✦Clove
- ✦Saffron
History of the Brand
Alpestre traces to 1857 and a community of religious brothers in the alpine foothills who blended local herbs into a fortifying elixir, in the same tradition that produced Chartreuse across the border in France.
The recipe passed to the Carmagnola distillery near Turin, where it is still produced with the original count of thirty-four botanicals and an unusually long rest in wood for a herbal liqueur.
Because it is bottled strong and only lightly sweetened, Alpestre sat outside the amaro boom for decades — a bottle Piedmontese families kept for after a heavy meal rather than one bartenders reached for.
American drinkers rediscovered it in the last ten years as a green-herbal substitute in Last Word and Chartreuse-style drinks, where its alpine bitterness reads drier than the French original.
Tasting Characteristics
Crushed mint and hyssop, pine sap, honeyed hay and a lift of alcohol.
Warm and viscous, with sage and thyme over honey, then saffron and clove and a wave of cooling menthol.
Long, drying and peppery, the sweetness burning off into herbs and eucalyptus.
Flavor meter
How to serve it
- 01Neat in a small glass after a long meal, at cool room temperature.
- 02Straight from the freezer as a shot, the way it is served in Piedmont.
- 03In place of green Chartreuse in a Last Word or Bijou.
- 04A quarter ounce as a rinse or float on an alpine Old Fashioned.
Where to Get It
Imported to the US in limited quantity and easy to find in Piedmont; specialist shops and Italian importers are your best bet elsewhere.
Specialist bottle shops
Look on the Chartreuse and alpine-liqueur shelf rather than with the amari.
Online importers
European retailers ship the 700ml bottle; expect $45–$60 before delivery.
In Piedmont
Stocked in most bars and grocers around Turin at local prices.
Where to buy Alpestre
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Alpestre FAQ
What is Alpestre?
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A high-proof Italian herbal liqueur from Piedmont made with thirty-four alpine herbs and aged in oak, bottled at 43% ABV.
Is Alpestre like Chartreuse?
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It occupies the same green-herbal territory but is drier and more mountain-mint than sweet, with a bitter alpine edge.
How should you drink Alpestre?
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Neat after dinner, ice-cold from the freezer, or swapped for green Chartreuse in a Last Word.