Older Chests – Heimat Alte Birne
There are many eau de vie producers out there who distill gin now. However, there are not many gin producers which decided to produce an eau de vie for a change. In this case, the folks from Heimat Gin bottled a pear eau de vie from old pear trees. So, let us see how it turned out.
The “Alte Birne” from Heimat Distillers uses pears from trees which are eighty to a hundred-and-fifty years old. After distillation on a copper pot-still the eau de vie spends five years in demi-johns before being bottled with an ABV of 40 %.
Honey and rose-laced pear notes
The “Alte Birne” starts with notes of honey and pears. The fruitiness is very well balanced with fruit skin notes. Additionally, you get floral notes reminding me of roses and hints of vanilla. All in all, the eau de vie is quite complex, but at the same time more refined than your classic Williams pear one.
A clear tea cocktail
For a drink with the Heimat pear eau de vie, I went for a sour style drink stretched with some tea. I used the excellent ginger and lime tea from Andraschko here. Obviously, you could just use regular lemon juice, but I went for the clear sour mixer Supasawa.
3 Dashes Homemade Eau de Vie Bitters
3 cl Andraschko Ginger & Lime Tea
1,5 cl Supasawa
2 cl Homemade Vanilla Syrup
Garnish: Candied Bergamot Peel;
Song: Damien Rice – Older Chests;
At first, the pear eau de vie and the vanilla syrup form a powerful alliance. After a short while the acidity from the Supasawa kicks in and keeps the drink from becoming too sweet. Beneath it all the tea keeps all the flavours together and adds subtle hints of ginger and lime. All in all, the drink beautifully showcases the pear eau de vie while at the same time being quite refreshing.
*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 eau de vie was provided by Heimat Distillers.
