This Friday I feel like toasting the single greatest thing to come out of Canada since the Avrow Avro Arrow: Unibroue and their stellar stable of damnation-themed beers. I have no doubt these beers are a prime reason why the rest of Canada will never allow Quebec to secede.
Try La Fin du Monde if you’re too snobbish for Hooegaarden, but beware the 9% alcohol. Order one 20-oz. bottle unless you plan on wobbling home.
Seven reasons to drive north for the weekend
Maudite fits the bill if you prefer red ales, and La Terrible may be one of the best trappist-style ales made by somebody who doesn’t speak Flemish. I can’t speak for their other ales, but I’m sure that folks will be happy to share that and report any other Canada-related finds in the comments.
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For your Friday non-beer alternative, let’s take a moment to meditate Gary Snyder-style on the joy to be found in mold and rot.
Not working? Can’t figure out why someone would want to put in their mouth grapes infested with the bane of damp-climate fruit growers, Botrytis cinerea?
The answer looks something like this:
If you’re lucky enough to have old, robust vines in a relatively dry climate, the grey bane of fruitgrowers also represents an opportunity to make some of the most difficult and rewarding wine in the world. Botrytis preserves the flavors of a grape, concentrating it to a rich, explosively-flavored essence of its original self. Many growers consider the ways that Botrytis concentrates and deepens grape character practically magical, if you luck upon a moist summer and a dry fall and you have the nerve to play chicken with an early frost. The longer you wait the more legendary your bottling will become, but also the more likely that a wet spell or an early frost will leave you with nothing but mold and dead berries.
If you find a good late harvest, save it for an exceptional occasion and serve it with dessert. Many are rich and complex enough to constitute a dessert on their own.
Among the great late harvests that I’ve found in my travels: Vendanges Tardives gewurztraminer, from Hugel et Fils on the famous Alsace Wine Route in France, stands out as an excellent reason to visit this corner of Europe. When you smuggle this back from Europe make sure to find room in your contraband suitcase for a tin of foie gras, with which it goes perfectly. The Gewurtztraminer, a rich dessert wine for which eastern Alsace is famous, makes a perfect fit for the royal Botrytis treatment. The general term for Botrytis wines from this region is Sélection de Grains Nobles/SGN.
As Gewurtz is to Alsace, Sauvignon Blanc is to New Zealand, and one of the best-regarded bottlers of that variety is Isabel Estate, near Renwick in Marlborough. It should go without saying (but having tried it, I’ll say it emphatically) that their late-harvest Sauvgnon Blanc, Noble Sauvage, would be a prize for anybody who can find a bottle.
Any region that makes decent whites will have a few wineries that try their hand at a Botrytis bottling, and you won’t be disappointed across the Rhine in Germany. The rare Beerenauslese, for example, is made by selecting individual Botrytis-affected Riesling grapes by hand. Trockenbeerenauslese is rarer and even richer, a true challenge for the masochists who insist on locating a bottle.
In my experience, anywhere you find it a bottle of Botrytis wine is a prize. Get friendly with the wineries in your area and you might find that they have something ‘under the table’ that they won’t even let the tasting crowd know they have.
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Unibroue, wasn’t she a villian in the second Austin Powers movie?
Perry Como
Just got back from the land of cheese eating surrender monkeys. The Beaujolais Nouveau served in Paris is much different than what I’ve had in the US. In one cafe they served wine from the owner’s vineyard. Other places had bottled, but overall, it was quite good. Not the astringent syrup we get here.
Time to crack open a bottle a make a rillette sandwich. Toss a white flag on top and you have a meal!
DaveMan
Beer blogging much better than that of cats…
stickler
Everything Unibroue makes is excellent. The only major drawback to them is that they’re damned secretive about their recipes. Homebrewers all over the country would love to replicate their Fin du Monde, but apparently the yeast is proprietary. Or something.
Anyhow, I have to get back to the brewing myself. It’s going to be a nice, strong, Tripel. Crap! Is that a boilover?
artpepper
Hoegaarden is a white beer, while Fin du Monde is a Belgian-style triple, so it’s not really an apt comparison. But they’re both delicious.
Carpbasman
My best man bought a case of La Fin Du Monde for my bachelor party.
Mary
Maudite is awesome. I brought some down to the States this summer for some friends and they loved it for the label alone before they drank a drop.
Mary
(And that’s the Avro Arrow Tim, but no worries.)
Jane Finch
Can’t take Maudite…it’s like those California zins with 16.5 percent alcohol: too much of a good thing.
Get thee to a store and buy either Upper Canada or Sleemans…now those are beers!
Jane Finch
PS, if you know the story of the Avro Arrow, you are truly a Canuck-o-phile. Either that, or a terribly good judge of excellent aircraft and government gone horribly awry.
Slartibartfast
I’ve had Spatlese, Auslese, and Trockenbeerenauslese. The last is truly a dessert wine; the first is drinkable with dinner. But it’s been a while.
I had a friend whose mother bought the stuff by the case from an importer. Probably it was wasted on guys like us.
ThomasD
If you are fond of dessert wines I would recommend you try some icewines, which are late harvest wines made from grapes pressed while frozen. The process is highly involved and there are strict parameters that must be adhered to in order to obtain a true product. Not surprisingly Canada, especially Ontario, has become a great source of quality icewine.
John Cole
I have nothing to add, but would like to add my immature (as always) observation that the word “Canuck-o-phile” sounds more titillating than it is.
Callimachus
Unibroue is wonderful stuff. You’d have to be some kind of expert to tell its Belgians from real Belgian. Love the labels, too. Flying Fur Trappers from Hell.
Jane Finch
Cole, once Canadian World Domination is complete, you will eat those words.
John Cole
With maple syrup, no doubt.
The Phantom
I brought a mini-keg of Blanche de Chambly back on the Amtrak train to New York. Well worth the effort. Delicious; wish it were more available and more affordable here.
Fritz Schranck
I couldn’t agree more with the remarks about Canadian beers.
Here’s a post about a trip to Quebec this August, in which several brands are mentioned:
http://sneakingsuspicions.com/a08142705.htm#081605
BR,
Fritz
/f
physics geek
FWIW, Don De Dieu is probably my favorite. Then again, I’ve never really had a bad Unibroue beer.
FredW
While I often disagree with you, I always respect your opinions. However today, we are in synch. I invited a couple friends over and we did a tasting of the special Unibroue beers of the last few years:
10 (released in 2002 on their 10th anniversary) 10% abv
11 (released in 2003 on their 11th anniversary) 11%abv
Special Edition 2004, 10.5%
Terrible (release 2004), 10.5%
Special edition 2005, 10%
And just to see how “Belgian” they were, we finished up with bottles of Rochefort 10 and Westvleteren 12 — sadly the Unibroue which (IMNSHO) makes the best Belgian style beers in North America, showed the new world has some way to go to catch up the old.
All the Unibroue were in corked 750ml bottles. We all liked the 11 best with the 10 and 2004 tied for second.
A Trival Pursuit, Beer Edition item: Paul Arnot, the head brewer at Unibroue, a Scotsman who studied at Heriot-Watt (one of the top three brewing schools in the world) and later head (secular) brewer at the Trappist Brewery of Chimay in Belgium — how did he end up in Quebec?
Dave Ruddell
Say Jane Finch, does your user name refer to your location? If so, I feel for you.
Derek
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1026271952413_269
It’s getting tired.
jreid
I once spent a night in Lethbridge. I will always think that the Lethbridge Pilsner I had that night was as good as beer gets. But then I am a Philistine.
Alex Bensky
Hey, Jane, some of us down in the US are even aware of the CF-100 Canuck.
I am no expert on Belgian beers but I’ve had all the Unibroue at one time or another and enjoyed them all immensely. And speaking of Quebec beer, the McAuslan oatmeal stout is excellent; I was heartbroken when they stopped distributing it in Michigan.
Beatitude Sputnik
Goddamit John. I keep trying to hate you for being a conservative, but then you keep doing stuff like complimenting my favorite beer, Maudite. Bastard. Your President is still a dink though.
Gray
For the readers that are interested in strong brews, here’s a great database:
http://www.bottledbeer.co.uk/
Yup, it features Belgium’s ‘Unibroue’ as well as our german (in)famous ‘Aventinus’° and several other specialities. Use the ABV% search option to find the heaviest stuff.
°Disclaimer: I experienced serious problems in trying not to fall from my stool after the consumption of 2 normal ‘Weizenbier’ (Erdinger) and 2 ‘Aventinus Weizen Doppelbock’. Under normal conditions, 2 litres of beer don’t give me any trouble, so this incident left me with a negative impression :)
Martin Lindeskog
Yesterday I went to Delirium cafe in Gothenburg and had several different kind of beers. Their goal is to have 2005 different beers in the near future. I am fan of wines from Hungary, e.g., Tokaj, Zweigelt and Kékfrankos.
All the Best,
Martin Lindeskog – American in spirit.
Gothenburg, Sweden
Jane Finch
Dave, I’m 1600 miles west of Jane/Finch…it’s an old usenet name that served me well in flame wars.
Mary
Jane, are you blogging anywhere these days, or are you just hanging out in comments like the rest of us peons?
Trashman
I paid $13 for a 6 pack of Hoegaarden White and thought it tasted like perfume. My long-term favs are Pilsner Urquell and Bitburger, but they are bitter, hoppy beers as opposed to malty ones.
baltar
If you like Hugel, try Zind-Humbrecht. Actually, I prefer Zind-Humbrecht, Trimbach and Weinbach to Hugel, but that’s just me. Weinbach is readily available in West Virginia, though not Trimbach or Zind-Humbrecht.
I didn’t think there were more than five people in Morgantown who knew what Vendage Tardive meant. Huh.
Tim F.
I will check that out immediately. Thanks for the heads-up.
There weren’t, at least not until I posted it. I’m in Pittsburgh.
baltar
Ah, Pittsburgh. Well, good luck with the state stores. You have a decent shot at Trimbach (and, obviously, Hugel, since you already have it), but I dunno about the others. If you ever drift down to Mo-town, I can find you some down here. Other than that, try for it in DC or NYC or Boston (or any non-government regulated wine retail store).
Krista
Goddammit! Not only did I miss the Friday beer blogging, but it was about Canadian beer. Well, I’ll put my faves up just for the sake of it:
Sleeman’s Honey Brown, Rickard’s Red, Garrison Brown
You must try Jost Vidal Icewine. http://www.jostwine.com. They don’t ship to the US, though.
BIRDZILLA
The have a brew called FAT TIRE and the theres HAMMAM FROM THE LAND OF SKY BLUE WATERS
joe7
‘And just to see how “Belgian” they were, we finished up with bottles of Rochefort 10 and Westvleteren 12’
Well gee, you just named off the two finest ales in the world (IMHO obviously). Of course Unibroue can’t compete with those guys! But Rochefort can’t keep up with Unibroue in terms of supplying me here in the US (R10 is nearly $7 for a 12oz bottle when I’m lucky enough to find it at all), and Westvleteren simply doesn’t distribute at all. Unibroue is truly outstanding at what they do.
Fat Tire and Hoegaarden are just gross!