The Rose – Scheibel Acher Kirsch
Since you can never have enough series going on, I thought I would start a new one. This time it is all about overproof eau de vies. While with whisky and rum overproof is a thing now, eau de vies are usually bottled at drinking-strength. So, we will take a closer look at some exceptions.
First, in this little series, we are reviewing the Scheibel 56%iger Acher Kirsch. The small sweet cherries for the eau de vie come from the Acher valley. Scheibel only harvests them full-ripe before the temperature controlled cooled fermentation. The distillation is done on the wood-fired “old time” still.
Marzipan, bitter almonds and cherry pits
Similar to the Scheibel Cherry Brandy, the Acher Kirsch has some powerful cherry pit notes. Apart from that, you get a lot of sweet cherry flavours along with some overripe fruit notes. You can notice the alcohol, but it is still well integrated. Compared to drinking strength cherry eau de vie, the Scheibel has more complex and dense notes. However, the bitter almond notes can be a bit overwhelming for some.
The best classic cherry eau de vie
I came across the Rose cocktail a few years ago when researching classic eau de vie cocktails. Ever since the drink stuck with me and so it was the perfect choice for an overproof cherry eau de vie. Typically, you can find two different versions out there, one with raspberry syrup and one with Groseille syrup. So, I just made both, because I had some homemade Groseille syrup in the fridge.
2,25 cl Scheibel 56%iger Acher Kirsch
0,75 cl Raspberry or Groseille Syrup
Garnish: Brandied Cherry;
Song: Danger Mouse & Daniel Luppi – The Rose With a Broken Neck;
In contrast to other cherry eau de vies, when made with the overproof Acher Kirsch, the Rose cocktail takes on a powerful cherry and bitter almond flavour. You can notice the vermouth giving the drink a proper backbone, but still the cherry eau de vie clearly is the main character here. On top of that, I also was surprised that it virtually made no difference if you use raspberry or Groseille syrup. The drink tasted more or less the same and also the colour was similar.
*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The cherry eau de vie was provided by Scheibel.
