Let's get fruity episode 7 - Plum
Updated: Aug 17
What's up, my fruity friends. Another week, another fruit distillate review. Today is a big one.... Plums. A very important stop on our world fruit tour and hence, predictably, the distilleries are well represented.
Two visits to both Hungary and Austria, plus stops in France, Germany, the UK, and the Czech Republic.
Plum is a fruit with dozens of varieties, today we are tasting a few from the family.... alongside more traditional plums we have the sweet bright Mirabelle, golden Reine Claude and the small dusky Damson.
If you'd like a little background on this brief excursion away from rum reviewing .. Here's my introduction to this crazy summer series.
For today's distiller profile, we're taking a short flight down to the beautiful Cordais plateau - an area of rich, fertile, gently rolling hills in southwest France. Here we find a father and son team running a traditional and diverse farm. Generations of experience, along with immense passion for the plants and the terroir, result in a farming approach that is completely in tune with, and a part of, the ecology and environment of the area.
Always targeting a product that captures the essence of its ingredients, Laurent Carozottes produces an outstanding range of fully organic natural wines. some superbly unique liqueurs and aperitifs (including ones made from tomatoes and walnuts!), and, of course, their Eau de Vie.
Plus an impressive cornucopia of crops and vegetables for the Cazottes kitchen and storeroom.
It's the Eau de Vie (or fruit distillates) that bring us here, so a little on these... apples, pears, plums and grapes are grown on the farm. Hand-cored, hulled and pitted, these are gently pressed, slowly fermented, and distilled on the small old still at the farm. The resultant distillate is rested in glass demi-johns. In the case of the pear and plum, these are described as 'perpetual' - a solera-like method; the glass demi-johns, semi-open to the air, are rested in a barn throughout the year. These are annually supplemented with new vintages as evaporation and the play of hot-cold concentrates and blends the aromas.
Very special products, still made in wonderfully traditional ways and produced in tiny quantities. I recommend you try anything with the name Cazottes on the label!
And on to today's tasting, 8 beautifully clear plum distillates - 15ml of each. Poured and covered 20 mins ago. Nosed first and then tasted, in the random order that I put the lead photo together. Assisted today by the Jamaican deejay Popcaan !
Our 4th of 5 visits to Sziecsek. A 40-year-old traditional Palinka producer from Hungary. Made with fruit grown in the shadow of the Carpathian mountains, Sziecsek never adds flavouring or sugar to their fruit distillates.
Nose: Boozy stuff. Warms the nostrils. Fragrant. Touch of mint and marzipan. Earthy fruit. Smells like high-alcohol prune liqueur. Not bad at all!
Mouth: This sparkles on your tongue. Although a touch harsh on the throat. Good fruit - nothing groundbreaking but a pleasantly enjoyable deep, sweet, slightly tart, jammy taste. With a hint of salt in the finish. Decent stuff [82-pts]
Golles make their plum brandy (or Eau de Vie) from Kriecherl - a wild brother of the classic house plum, closely related to Ringlotten and Mirabelle. 13kg of plums produce each litre of this spirit, which is rested in glass balloons for 2 years before bottling.
2014 is typed in tiny font on the rear of the label, so I'm guessing that this was distilled 10 years ago.
Nose: More aromatic. A little curdled. Actually, it's very curdled like sour, gone off fruit milk. Not pleasant, and certainly not inviting.
Mouth: The sour fruit dairy notes are less pronounced on the palate but still there. Lots of fermenting fruit - not bad but it doesn't work for me. At least the bottle is pretty. [77pts]
Clear Slivovitz is the most famous Czech fruit spirit, which Rudolf Jelínek has been making in Vizovice since the 19th century. Their Slivovitz is made by triple distilling a ripe plum mash. The plum pits remain in the mash the entire time adding to the tannic profile.
Nose: Rich. Plum & brandy pudding. Dry earthy tannic prune juice. Alcohol is quite aggressive at first but calms in time.
Mouth: The earthiness from the nose is dialled up on the palate. An enjoyable, fiercely bitter, vegetal dram. Lacking some bright fruit notes, and a bit more complexity, that would lift this and make you want to come back for more [79pts]
As always, a limited vintaged release from Capreolus. The 2020 batch ran to 379 of their distinctive tall sexy black bottles.
Barney and the team produce both plum and the smaller damson Eau de Vie. Today I'm reviewing the latter.
3400kg of the finest damsons were sourced from a family-run farm in Evesham (just 28 miles from the distillery) to produce these 379 bottles. After hand grading, they were gently fermented with the stones left in (to be removed just before distillation).
This is, rather sadly, our last stop at Capreolus in the unaged Eau de Vie series. An outstanding distillery with a mighty 3 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronze so far in my mini-series (profiled distiller back in episode 1 of this fruity madness.)
Nose: Next-level juice. Spicy. Powerfully perfumed fruit with a strong vein of bitterness from pith or skin. Cherry stones. Very slight hints of almonds. Intense stuff
Mouth: A wonderful almost chalky texture. Delightful bright perfumed fruit. Spicy. A balancing bitterness. This is the real deal. Mouth coating. Tiny touches of spearmint and blackcurrant fruit blossom. A chewy dram with a lovely long, fun and complex finish. One of my favorites from Capreolus [90pts]
As with the Capreolus, this is a 'vintaged' release. I'm not clear on the number of bottles produced in 2020 but, as per the unique method discussed in today's distiller profile section, this is probably the year of bottling rather than the year of distilling.
Silver medalist in the pear round and today's profiled distiller, Cazottes takes a very different approach to the making of this Eau de Vie.
Unusually, after picking their golden Reine Claude plums, they dry them on racks to intensify the flavour. Stems and stones are removed leaving just skin and flesh for fermentation. I'm expecting a fruitier, juicer product with less of the whole fruit & tree tannic experience tasted elsewhere.
Nose: My favourite so far. Incredibly fruit-forward. Globs of juicy stone fruit. Very different from the bitter, whole-fruit experience of the Capreolus. Arguably less complex, certainly less floral. Both are fantastic, This seems a little more approachable, and juicier. Mouthwatering stuff.
After another 15 minutes, this is developing a slight fruit bitterness that adds a wonderful extra dimension
Mouth: Completely different from the Capreolus and Kolonko. Less perfumed. More of the amazing, dry, yet full and rich fruit depth. A slight salinity marries with the thick juicy fruit leaving you wanting another sip. Delicious. It doesn't have the intense perfume and flavour, of perhaps the 'whole fruit and tree experience' when compared to Capreolus or Kolonko, but a beautiful Eau de Vie and the one I most enjoy sipping. I love it. [90+pts]
The mirabelle plums for this brandy come from a wild orchard in the Markgräflerland. Only when they fall, fully ripe, from the trees are they picked up and processed directly.
This 2018 batching consists of just 26 litres of rare Eau de Vie (128 little bottles)
Nose: Oh wow. I wish I didn't like these expensive little gems but it's hard not to :-)
This is a fruit-forward dram. Rich, juicy and inviting. A big smash of the enjoyably soapy, floral scent of parma violet sweets. The most perfumed of the lineup - a quite breathtaking nose.
Mouth: Drinkable fruit perfume! No idea how he does this. Next level intensity. Imagine getting a tonne of small fragrant plums. Plus 2 tonnes of blossom. And a bunch of leaves and stems. And squeeze all the flavour into a single sip. You get the idea. Insane concentration of flavour. I marginally prefer the less perfumed Cazottes but I am so so impressed by the quality and intensity of this. A finish that I suspect will go on until tomorrow. An expensive bottle but a little goes a very very long way. Well deserved 90-pointer. Spectacular! [90pts]
After strong scores in the Apricot and Pear rounds, I have high hopes for Guglhof today. This multi-award-winning distillery produced its limited-released 2018 plum Eau de Vie in small copper pot stills before resting for several years to harmonise the flavours.
Nose: Great fruit, with natural fruit sweetness. Not quite the intensity of the last three but not far off. An enjoyable deep stone fruit profile. With both earthy and blossom-like side notes.
Mouth: A lovely balance of fruit and rose petal perfume. Almond & cherrystone bitterness too. Impressive. A smidge of lime zest and menthol. The taste started a hint too light but picked up mid-palate and ran on to an outstanding long finish. Gets the nod from me. Stunning value [87pts]
Our third Bestillo of four in the series. Their 40% abv products have so far been a little underwhelming. I'm hoping they can get closer to hitting the mark with this plum offering.
Nose: Smells like this is physically farther away than the others. A pleasant lightly soapy prune nose, just too feint to be particularly enjoyable. Dark, musty, earthy fruit and quite nutty ... if you persevere.
Mouth: Good flavours, just a touch too thin. Plums, biscuits, menthol & Parma Violets. Touches of spice, and lovely fruit. Clean and tasty. Please dial it up a couple of notches! Well balanced and tasty. A decent finish too. The 'best Bestillo' so far [83-pts]
Conclusions...
A high-scoring round. Plum most certainly lived up to expectations.
Guglhof - don't overlook this. Narrowly missed a podium spot. Serious quality and insane value.
Picking a winner was tough today (and great fun!). The quality of both the Capreolus and the Kolonko was off the charts. They have packed more flavour into a spirit than I would have ever thought possible, ultimately I have to go for the dram I enjoyed most and that is Distillerie Cazottes - Goutte de Reine Claude Doree. Frustratingly difficult to get in the UK but worth a journey to France to find this. Wildly delicious, juicy Eau de Vie.
Coming soon ... the penultimate round! A wrap-up of the remaining Drupe (stone fruit) with exciting bottlings of Peach, Cherry, and Mango Eau de Vie. And a distiller profile of Johannes Kolonko!
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