Divine Nectar Pass the eau de vie, mon ami By Nancy Ross Ryan

Photo by Laurie Proffitt

The greatest quality of fruit liqueurs is their flavor - intense raspberry, vivid cherry, vibrant strawberry, luscious blackberry, fragrant pear. The not-so-great quality of fruit liqueurs is their sweetness - sometimes cloying, especially after dinner. But what if it were possible to capture and isolate in all its purity that intensity of fruit without the excess of sweetness? I have found the way: eau de vie. Eau de vie, a French term meaning "water of life" from the Latin aqua vitae," are one of life's unsweet mysteries. These are completely dry, potent spirits that are colorless but the antithesis of flavorless. Take a sniff and then a sip of kirschwasser. Some divine alchemist took a whole bowlful of cherries at their peak of fragrance and flavor, condensed them into a few precious drops, and delivered them to your tongue. That's eau de vie. St. George Spirits, an Alameda, California based maker of eau de vie, estimates that more than 20 pounds of fresh fruit go into every bottle of eau de vie. In the late 1900s, American distillers, such as St. George and Bonny Doon in California and Clear Creek in Oregon learned the art of eau de vie, and produce some very fine ones. But the art was discovered and perfected centuries ago by distillers in Germany's Black Forest region, France's Alsace, Austria, and the German-speaking areas of Switzerland. These "alcohols blancs" as the French call them, are clear spirits distilled from fermenting ripe fruits and distilling the mash, without any sweetening. Their flavor is pristine and infinitely more complex and sophisticated than sweet liqueurs. They are also higher in alcohol. Sweet fruit liqueurs range in alcohol content between 16 to 20%. Eau de vie range between 40 to 45% alcohol. But, when in search of eau de vie, be forewarned that the eau de vie often share the same shelves with the sweet fruit cordials at the wine and spirit stores. Eau de vie are always considered after-dinner digestifs. And I like to serve them chilled in a small glass -- about a 1-1/2 ounce pour seems just right for sipping and savoring. Unlike sweet liqueurs, they are not a good choice for pouring over ice cream. But, because of the purity and intensity of their fruit flavors, they are infinitely more versatile in cooking than sweet liqueurs. For example, try marinating fresh apples for your next apple tart or pie in one or two tablespoons of apple eau de vie. Or, after poaching pears, add a dash of pear eau de vie to the poaching liquid as they cool. Want the ultimate in decadence? Then add a tablespoon of raspberry eau de vie to the batter or frosting recipe for chocolate cake, or to your favorite chocolate mousse. When cooking vegetables with any natural sugars of their own -- carrots, onions, summer and winter squash, cabbage -- try a splash of eau de vie during sauteeing or braising. Some flavor combinations: carrots and apricot eau de vie, onions and apple eau de vie, zucchini and mirabelle (yellow plum) eau de vie, butternut squash or pumpkin and quince eau de vie, cabbage and apple or pear eau de vie. And when deglazing any pan, after sautéing chicken, lamb, or pork, add a dash of eau de vie to the wine. You'll be tripling the flavor. We're all familiar with the mysterious bottles of the famous Poire William eau de vie with the pears right in the bottle (made by several European and American distillers). Ever wondered about that mystery -- how the pear gets in the bottle? Here's the scoop from someone who does a special limited Pear-in-the-bottle eau de vie. According to Steve McCarthy, owner and master distiller at Clear Creek Distillery in Oregon, they follow the tradition established in Alsace of growing the pear inside the bottle. They place the bottles on the pear trees at the beginning of summer when the fruits are small. They remove the bottles when the pears are fully mature. Then the bottles are scrubbed by hand (no chemicals or preservatives used), and the pear brandy is added. So when you serve your next round of Poire William eau de vie after your next dinner party, be sure to have one of those bottles with the pears inside. Someone is sure to wonder how it got there. And you'll be the in-house pear pundit. Want Proof? I have always been puzzled by proof -- as in 90-proof scotch. What strange terminology for a label. Proof, I learned, means two times the level of alcohol in a beverage. So that 90-proof scotch is actually 45% alcohol. So where did the practice of putting "proof" instead of alcohol % on labels come from? According to my reference bible, Kindred Spiritsby F. Paul Pacult (Hyperion, 1997), it all started in England about three hundred years ago: Distillers measured the strength of their spirits by pouring a little onto gunpowder and lighting it with a match. If it exploded -- too strong. If it didn't light -- too weak. But if the spirit-soaked gunpowder burned with a steady blue flame, it was considered perfect. According to Pacult the distiller would say, "That's gunpowder proof." And the measure of this ultimately desirable proof was a mixture of half water and half distilled alcohol. So 100 (gunpowder) proof is 50% alcohol. Probably the highest proof spirit you can buy today is rum, some of which runs to 75.5% alcohol, or 151 proof; and also bourbon, many ranging in the low 50s, or 100-plus proof and some reaching 63% alcohol or 126 proof. Translating Terms Some of the fruit and vegetable essences in eau de vie are self-evident. Apple, apricot, blueberry, blackberry, celery, cherry, elderberry, ginger, pear, and raspberry need no explanation. But often fruits appear on labels in foreign languages, not all of them French. Coing = Quince Cerise = Cherry Fraise = Strawberry Framboise = Raspberry Kirsch/Kirschwasser = Cherry Mirabelle = Yellow plum Mure = Mulberry Myrtille Bilberry = (a.k.a. whortleberry Europe's blueberry) Poire = Pear Pomme = Apple Prunelle = Sloe (wild European plum) Quetsch = European variety of blue plum (a.k.a. Switzen) Slivovitz = Blue plum

LIQUID ASSETS - January 2001