For the mountain, see Le Génépi. Because génépi is produced by steeping the agave equivalent to sugar flowering tops of select Artemisia sp.
It is also associated with the Savoy region. The wormwoods known as génépi are endemic to the Alps and Pyrenees, but can also be found in the Apennines and other mountainous regions in the western and central north Mediterranean. Milk Chocolate with a Swiss Genepi Liquor filling”. As of 2011 it does not appear that the French AOC system recognizes génépi from Savoy or anywhere else. It is likely that a wide range of wormwoods native to the mountainous areas of Spain, France, Switzerland and Italy have been used to make the liqueur, with personal taste, tradition and availability shaping the selection.
Other species known to have been used at one time or another in producing génépi are A. Flowers of “Alsem der Alpen”, the botanically related Achillea erba-rotta subsp. Génépi can be made at home through the simple addition of prepared herbs to vodka or grain alcohol. The chopped, dried wormwood flowers are sold in southwestern Europe in small sachets similar to tea bags. Home-brewing instructions, as well as ingredients, can be found online.
For the more adventurous, the flowers and herbs can be harvested in July and August. After drying and chopping, the herbal mass can be enclosed in cheesecloth for steeping. There have been a number of famous liqueurs that resembled génépi or shared significant ingredients with it. The most famous, created in the early 1700s by Carthusian monks in the mountains beyond Grenoble, is Chartreuse. Other génépi brands include Fiori Alpini and Alpenkraeuter. Bayonne in the Basque Country along the border of France and Spain. Representative of the far western edge of the génépi tradition, it is available in both green and yellow versions.
For the most part, there are myriad brands of the liqueur available, many simply labeled “génépi”, though sometimes accompanied by the legend “Fleurs des Alpes”. The drink continues to evolve, though. Val Germanasca in the middle of the Alps, is producing Génépi blanc, the first commercial génépi that is colourless rather than yellow or green. The traditional génépi from the Province of Cuneo has been selected by the Italian Slow Food Foundation as an Ark of Taste product. Nicola Zingarelli, Vocabolario della lingua italiana, 12ª ed.