21 hours ago
Sunday, 15 December 2019
L'alambic des bons vivants - Terroirs de gueuletons
Here are two typical Périgordians, Arthur and Vincent (les gueuletons), enjoying a day out, distilling alcohol with some rustic locals. The scene is very typical of this area; much more so than all those fairytale Chateaux that one sees.
If you don't speak any French, just turn the sound off; it's just as good 'mute'.
Making Eau de Vie is very simple. In Autumn you fill a plastic drum with plums, apples, and maybe some raspberries (hence the red colour), then a few months later you take it to someone who has an illicit still (such as the one in the video), and he will distill the resulting liquid for you. The end result is LETHAL.
I have two bottles of Eau de Vie in the house; one is Plum and the other Pear. They have sat untouched for years!
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You need the sound on even if you don't understand! What a bunch.
ReplyDeleteYour locals know how to enjoy themselves with style.
Bet that stuff keeps them warm during your chilly winters!
Once (with a friend) we both had very bad colds. We decided to cure ourselves with Eau de Vie; all we got were terrible headaches, but it was an enjoyable way to get them.
DeleteI agree with Linda, you definitely need the sound even if like me you don't understand a word of it, you don't have to! Dick Strawbridge took some pears to a place like that for his eau de vie for the chateau. He got told off about something by the farmer, can't remember what.
ReplyDeleteI must have missed that episode. Maybe he threatened to divulge the name of the man with the still.
DeleteDick had turned up with the sack load and was about to turn them into the still when the farmer started shouting "non! non!" Dick had not de-stalked them. He then had to do so while the farmer stood and watched.
DeleteHe obviously still has a lot to learn.
DeleteI remember thinking at the time what on earth was Dick thinking about leaving the stalks in.
DeleteAre you saving your bottles for some special occasion or something?
ReplyDeleteNo, they're just far too strong. I'm not a spirits drinker (other than a tiny bit of Scotch in winter). We do occasionally add a splash to mixed fruits.
DeleteThe rural French have somehow remained about 90% medieval. All we have is Morris Dancing, and that is a Victorian invention. We turned our backs on the old ways. Can you imagine the Temperance Society in France?
ReplyDeleteI can imagine a lynching party. Temperance and veganism are banned in FRance.
DeleteI always used our eau de vie (from neighbour Philippe) for pickling cherries, mixing it in equal parts with brandy and vodka.
ReplyDeleteWe used to do that too. Our neighbour even had a special Cherry tree for the job!
DeleteThe stills are not always illicit... we have three legal ones near us... two will remain viable for at least the next 25 yrs because the licences were transfered to a younger person before the law changed... the other one, who knows... the guy claims he's 85... he looks younger and appears to be made of tanned leather!
ReplyDeleteOur neighbour gave us a litre of his eau de vie du mirabelle.... as you say, it is lethal... very good as a 10:1 mix with prosecco, cava or soda water... in all three cases you can actually taste the pluminess! Anything less than a ten to one dilution and you can't taste anything but firewater! I reckon that it is somewhere in the region of 80 to 85% ABV...
I've a stinker of a cold [not quite Manflu]... I wonder if I should brave some at 50:50....kill or cure, kill or cure!
Look, it doesn't sound half as much fun if I'd said they were legal. In fact it's not difficult to make a still in your kitchen... I've been considering it for years.
DeleteCro, but they are now illegal... or starting one now is.... that's why they are dying out.... it is all the nanny state thing! And that the state can get money from the big commercial legal ones.... but the 85yr old's one is deep in one of the local forests... and has a younger assistant..........hmmmm? The stuff's close to moonshine... it might as well become such!!
DeleteYou jogged my memory. I've a bottle of 'home made' vodka a man from Poland gave me many years ago. I dare to open the thing or maybe I've disposed of it or used it to clean brushes or something. These days I don't go over 45 proof and generally dilute that with a generous splash of acqua!
ReplyDeleteLucky I wasn't there - I thought the green bucket was to pee in.
DeleteMany years ago I had a Polish friend whose father made his own Vodka; it was awful. I think they used it for preserving fruit, but it could well have doubled for paint stripper.
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