Let's get fruity episode 9 - other fruit!
And just like that, we reach the 9th and final round of my summer diversion into fruit distillates.
Eau de Vie. Clear fruit brandy. Palinka. Whatever name you give it, these incredible spirits have been a pleasure to taste, review, and explore. I am humbled by the passion and skill of the master distillers choosing the expensive, niche, labour-intensive craft of fruit distilling. Following their heart to produce something of beauty, of incredible quality, rather than the many easier, more lucrative distilling avenues.
To do justice to these fruity geniuses, and to celebrate the tiny milestone of reaching 1000 followers on Instagram, I will do my 'champion tasting' - a head-to-head review of the 9 gold medalists - as a video. Urghh. Not sure my ugly mug, rambling on about fruit distilling, will do anything other than scare people, but I bought a mini tripod so no looking back now!
And back to the item at hand. The final round - fruit that didn't fit the previous 8 categories. We have distillates made from Fig, Malay Apple (Pomme Malaka), Banana, Star Fruit (Carambola), Tangerine, and Custard Apple!
Plus a final distiller profile of Tunisia's Boukha Bokobsa distillery.
If you'd like a little background on this brief excursion away from rum reviewing .. Here's my introduction to this crazy summer series.
Bokobsa has been making their 'Boukha' or fig Eau de Vie since Yaakov Bokobsa moved his family, and his 'mobile distillery', from Russia* to Tunisia in 1820. Abraham Bokobsa (grandson of Yaakov) settled in La Soukra in 1880, where he built a factory, started using the iconic square bottles, and Tunisia's national drink was born!
*Yaakov called his early distillates 'vodka', written in Russian as водка - or as the Tunisians read it... Bouka!
The original 'recipe', from the 1880s, is still available today - red/yellow/white label below left. This was considered quite an aggressive drink, so, in the 1990s a softer, double distilled version ('Bokobsa Prestige') was added to the range "as an alternative for women" (not my words!). You can see this in black and silver below central.
Most recently, in 2017, their 5 times distilled, super premium 'Silver' version was added. That's the one I'm tasting and reviewing today. (below right)
Still family-owned and run, I believe Bouka Bokobsa is now produced in France. I'm looking forward to experimenting with some figgy Bouka in a few cocktails.
And finally, the last round ... the last tasting. 20ml of each, left (covered) to open up for about 30 mins. Nosed first, then tasted, in the same random order as the lead photo.
Assisted today by some classy tunes from Brown Horse.
First up, from today's profiled distiller, a fascinating fig Eau de Vie. This ' Silver ' version was the latest addition to the range in 2017. It's distilled an incredible 5 times and is bottled at a bold 45%.
Nose: Musky and rich, with boozy dried fruit. Dried berry syrup. An enjoyable eucalyptus profile that you some sometimes find on cane juice rums. And notes of menthol, anise, and pine oil.
Mouth: Silky. A lovely long finish. Not sure I'd pick figs if I hadn't known - but it's a classy, deep, rich drop with touches of elderflower, lime, spearmint, and honey. The fig notes get clearer into the long finish. And even more pronounced after a few sips. Needed an hour to reach its best.
A clean rich spirit. Arguably too clean and lacks some funk or contrasting flavours, it drinks like a super clean fig vodka. If you want pure high-quality fig booze then look no further. [86-pts]
The first of a pair of very rare tropical distillates from Capovilla. These were part of a trio* released in 2017 to celebrate Velier's 70th anniversary.
This one was made from the tropical fruit pomme malaka {malay apple}. A limited release of just eight hundred 50cl bottles, rested for a lengthy 10 years before bottling.
A little more information is available on the Velier website.
*the 3rd was Pera Madernassa - reviewed in the pear round.
Nose: Screams out pot-stilled cane juice rum! Funky stuff. Pine, thyme and acetone. I have no ideal what malay apple smells like, certainly wouldn't have expected this, but it's delicious and inviting.
Mouth: Resin, citrus oils, and pine oil, dry and acrid. Super interesting, not necessarily super delicious. Very bitter. The nose was incredible but the taste is like pine table polish and cologne - really quite difficult (and I want to like it). [79-pts]
Last of the trio of unique tropical distillates released by Gianni Capovilla in 2017 to celebrate Velier's 70th anniversary.
One of two banana distillates in today's lineup - I'm going bananas with excitement to taste these side-by-side.
This was rested for an extensive 11 years before bottling. According to the Velier website, there were only 120 bottles produced - which seems unexpectedly low to me!
Nose: I hope you like banana! This is deep, almost caramelised banana. Gluey, spicey, orange oil, and a hint of vanilla. The spice, orange, and booziness reminds me of bananas flambeed in Grand Marnier. I could dive right in!
Mouth: A slightly short entry. Tastes of soft ripe bananas with a big dose of bitter banana skin. Really coats your mouth. Short mid taste too, but it loops back round to a decent length flambee banana finish. Classy and complex. [88pts]
Banana number 2. And the first of 4 unusual fruit distillates from a tiny family-run distillery in Madeira.
This amazing juice is made from unwanted fruit that would otherwise have ended up in landfill.
Making banana Eau de Vie is not something you approach lightly, especially with a 1-year process to produce!
From tonnes of fruit-fly-loving bananas ripening for 2-5 weeks to peeling thousands of bananas by hand.
From patiently fermenting a vat of banana mush for an entire month to achieve a tiny percentage of alcohol, to days of batch distilling the 'banana wine' - each batch results in the equivalent of just 20 bottles of finished Eau de Vie!!
Finally, the clear distillate (at 80-85%) is rested for 6 months to allow the flavours to blend and mellow before diluting, drop by drop over 2 months, to the bottling abv. And a final month's rest before bottling. That's passion for you!
Rather excitingly, Paulo has been aging some of this distillate in charred Portuguese virgin oak barrels and I can tell you - it's pretty bloody delicious!
Awarded a gigantic '98 points Gold Outstanding' in the IWSC!
Nose: Lighter, brighter banana. Not quite the depth of the Capovilla on the nose. Fresher and more aromatic. Still unmissably all banana. A pure banana smell with less of the orange and caramel. Endless lovely notes of overripe banana. Yum.
Mouth: A winner! Ripe banana, thick texture, bright and delicious. Good pot still complexity - nutty with a smidge of brine - all balanced by the natural banana sweetness and some banana foam sweets. Very good indeed. In the battle of the banana; Capo won the nose but overall Vinha Alta's big, full, bright banana taste has won me over [88+pts]
Ooo starfruit - exotic :-)
Due to the hard dry flesh and low sugar content, Paulo couldn't crush, juice, and traditionally ferment this. So instead the pressed fruit was macerated in a neutral grain spirit before distilling. This is clearly detailed on the label, no misleading guff - chapeau to Vinha Alta!
Rested for a full year to soften and mature the flavours before bottling. Amazingly this isn't the only star fruit distillate - I understand that a small distillery on Reunion also makes some.
Nose: Brightly fruity. Very tropical. The star fruit is wonderfully clean and clear. A fresh, yet earthy fruit nose with crisp citrus and licorice notes. Even a tiny smidge of five spice.
Mouth: Fruit pastils and wine gums. A fruity sweet shop delight. Tropical fruit sweets. And peppermints. A tiny bit medicinal on subsequent sips, although still really delicious. Super rich. Maybe too rich. Thankfully a little pith-like bitterness keeps things in focus and makes you want another sip! [85pts]
Vinha Alta Tangerine Eau de Vie, Madeira, 42.7%, £45 (500ml)
Local tangerines, juiced, fermented, and distilled. Sounds easy right? ... until you consider the oils.
Citrus fruits are notoriously difficult to distill because of their high natural levels of oil. Paulo used 50% peeled tangerines* and 50% whole tangerines. This mash was fermented and then the liquid was filtered off for distilling.
After the first run, the distillate was milky from all the oil. The solution was to leave this for months allowing gravity to separate the oil and then to siphon the distillate from below. This was redistilled and then rested for 2 years before bottling. Easy... nope!
*the peel was used for their excellent gin.
Nose: Super clean and fresh. Soooo inviting. Tangerine! Lots and lots of tangerine. One of the cleanest most honest profiles of the whole series. Citrus oils. And mouthwatering tangerine. Super spicy with just the tiniest touch of honeysuckle but overall it's just fresh, bright, intense tangerine. Amazing.
Mouth: No hiding from this one. Intense, oily tangerine. A tiny whisp of smoke, and the concentrated bitter, slightly acrid taste as you might expect from dry tangerine essence. A triumph. The long finish is packed full of tangerine oil. Will I drink lots of it? Probably not. And the taste possibly doesn't quite live up to the mindblowing nose. But VA need to be applauded for producing something of this exceptional quality that perfectly honours its fruit. [88pts]
An experimental Eau de Vie made from Paulo's homegrown custard apples. Sourcing high-quality fruit is seldom an issue thanks to Madeira's ideal climate but custard apples are an exception being expensive and a very niche tropical fruit.
These were pressed, fermented, pot distilled, and rested for at least 2 years. Time consuming and expensive to produce, for a product with a tiny market and likely very low margins.
Nose: Beautiful. Seriously, this is glorious. Fabulously perfumed. Nutty, buttery, and very spicy. Anise and caraway seeds. Citrus peel and rosewater. Pot still funk, glue, and acetone. A stunning nose.
Mouth: If you've not had custard apples before, this spirit is going to give you a near-perfect representation. One thing I want from these spirits is for them to scream the fruit they're made from. This is the essence of custard apples! A bit of zip and zest leads into a tight, lightly sharp, and sour finish. Great chalky thick texture. Wonderfully spicy with hints of ginger and black pepper. Honest to the humble custard apple, a clean taste, clearly very well made. [90+pts]
Conclusion:
What a great summer. I've most certainly caught the Eau de Vie bug. Some mesmeric spirits that are too often overlooked. We all need to thank our lucky stars that a few passionate distillers are out there, swimming upstream, choosing quality over quantity, to produce these incredible distillates. Capturing the quintessence of fruit for us to savour.
A fascinating, and delicious lineup for the final round. Some of these captured the essence of the fruit perfectly.
With a clean sweep for Vinha Alta the last three spots on the medals chart are complete. So I'm just left to thank those who took the time to read my ramblings and to thank the distillers who supported this project with information and (in some cases) samples. No sway was given to those who furnished me with samples, vs those where I bought samples or bottles myself - but it helped lessen the cost of a rather expensive fruity endeavor as I don't make a penny from this blog.
A dominant 3 golds each for Capreolus and Capovilla!
And 1 each for Kolonko, Cazottes & Vinha Alta.
Coming soon...
A wrap-up review video of the champions from the series. Yes, my face, on video ... urghh.
And a bonus episode - reviewing this selection of 8 aged Eau de Vie!
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