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| Strasbourg (Alsace), France |
When you travel abroad, it’s kind of
customary to bring back a bottle of booze that is identified with the region
you visited. Sometimes just because your friends asked for them, sometimes to
serve when you are boring everyone to death with your stories and endless slideshows
of your vacation. You bring beer from Belgium or wine from France: easy… All
purchased from the duty free shop at the last minute. But what if you wanted to
bring a bottle which most of your booze lover friends are not familiar with and
can create conversation around it? I
have a list of my own favorites that I usually purchase when I am traveling for
my own liquor cabinet and would like to share a few here just to give you some
ideas.
St. Raphael from Alsace, France: St. Raphael is a fortified wine served as an
aperitif or digestif. It has a secret recipe created by a gentleman named
Doctor Juppet dating back to the 1830s and, back in those days, was sold mainly
in pharmacies. The formula contains a blend of French wines, quinine, cocoa
beans, bitter oranges, vanilla pods and calumba, among other herbs and seeds.
It comes in red and white bottlings, often referred to as “twins” in France, depending
on the grape varieties used in making them. It is mostly used in cocktails
emphasizing its bittersweet qualities, but I really like it chilled with a
single cube of ice served to with a rich chocolaty desert. Despite its big fame and worldwide success
after the Second World War, it was forgotten lately, became very hard to find,
and disappeared completely around 2010. They even shut down the web presence of
the company. Luckily the brand got resurrected within last year under new ownership
and slowly is getting easier to find in northern France and Belgium.
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| Kastellorizo (Megisti), Greece |
Metaxa from Greece: The brand was created
at the end of the 19th century by a Greek merchant named Spyros Metaxa. Contrary to popular belief, standard
expressions of Metaxa are not brandies but liqueurs. The process starts with
dry white wines from different regions of Greece made both from fresh grapes
and raisins. These are distilled and aged in French Limousin oak barrels for a
period of time. Then a small amount of rich, sweet muscat wines sourced from
Samos and Lemnos islands are blended with the aged spirits and, finally, a
secret mix of herbs and floral extracts containing rose petals is added. This unique process makes Metaxa a liqueur rather
than a brandy. The brand has a wide range of products: 3 stars, 5 stars, 7
stars, 12 stars (stars refer to the age of the youngest distillate in the vat)
and a Reserve Collection with Metaxa Private Reserve (30 yo) and Aen Metaxa. Aen Metaxa contains aged spirit sourced from
their Cask Number 1 also known as "Spyros Cask", which according to
their press release holds some brandy over 80 years old. It has a rich and syrupy texture with peach
compote, candied pecans, Tokaji wine and rose water aromas. The palate is sweet,
with chestnut honey, ripe figs and cinnamon. Absolutely the best pairing for
your Greek coffee. They are meant to be together.
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| Montrachet (Burgundy), France |
Marc de Bourgogne from Burgundy, France: Like any other wine country, the wine makers
from Burgundy also didn’t want to discard the leftovers from the wine making
process and decided to distill them. So technically what we have here is a
grappa from Burgundy, but with a few differences. The seeds are also crushed and distilled, which
adds a distinct bitter note to the palate, and they are aged in French oak
barrels. So, because traditionally the good barrels were used mainly to age
higher class spirits like Cognac and Armagnac, Marc de Bourgogne barrels used
to be tired casks, which had no further use for other spirit producers, or big
wine barrels recycled within the winery. Also, aging for a long period of time wasn’t
the idea. Wine makers wanted to have the spirit just mellow enough to make it
drinkable, nothing more. So the resulting brandy is a little raw, bold, and has
a pretty strong finish. Nowadays it’s possible to find fine aged and high end
expressions but I strongly recommend to walk into a café in Burgundy and give a
chance to one of the cheap brands made for the working class.
Ajerkoniak from Poland: Now, this is a confusing label... Actually
Akerkoniak is the Polish equivalent of Advocaat, which is a Dutch liquor
traditionally made from eggs, sugar and brandy but, despite the word “cognac”
(koniak) in its name, this Polish version contains vodka instead of brandy as
its main ingredient. I know how it sounds, and it requires a lot of convincing
to take the first sip for the ones who are not comfortable having some eggs in
their glasses, but it is beyond delicious. Some expressions are served with a
spoon because it’s so thick and creamy. The liquor has a smooth, velvety mouth
feel and the palate is sweet and custardy. Great when it is served a little
heated on winter days and also very enjoyable on summer afternoons with an ice
cube.
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| Zagreb, Croatia |
Slivovitz from Croatia: I said Croatia since I had so many
great nights involving many shots of Slivovitz on Tkalciceva Street in Zagreb,
but Slivovitz is identified with almost every Balkan country in the region.
Bosnia, Hungary, Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia, Romania—all have their own versions of
Slivovitz and they all share the same pride of naming it as their national
drink. It is basically a brandy
distilled from Damson plums, usually bottled un-aged but it is possible to find
aged varieties as well. The uniqueness
of the process comes from not removing the kernels of the plums when crushing
and pressing and leaving them to ferment with fruit. I personally like the
vibrant and young palate of the un-aged expressions with a pint of crisp lager characteristic
to the region, and to consume them with a matching speed to the locals (which can
end up pretty embarrassing), but sipping the aged ones slowly can be equally
satisfactory.
[edited by Teresa Hartmann]
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