It’s harvest time for mirabelle plums. For a brief moment of time, dainty little yellow plums hold center stage in Luxembourg’s supermarkets. Being a longtime fan of roadside stands and farmers’ markets, I can’t resist fresh local fruits that are in season. After scooping up a bagful, I head over to the liquor aisle. (Unlike the nanny state of Washington, the Luxembourg government is not afraid of their citizens buying liquor along with their pork chops). In the brandy section, elegantly colorful labels featuring a familiar yellow fruit jumped out at me--mirabelle plum eau-de-vie. At only twelve Euros for a bottle of locally distilled brandy, it seemed a worthy investment.
Eau-de-vie is a French word meaning “water of life”, similar to the Scottish phrase uisge beatha from which we get the word whiskey. Eau-de-vie is a clear, colorless brandy made from fruit. Unlike some fruit “brandies”, which are often cheap grape brandy with fruit syrup added to it, eau-de-vie doesn’t have any added coloring or sugar. It is made by pressing the actual fruit for its juice, letting that juice ferment into a base wine and then distilling it a least two times. After distillation eau-de-vie is immediately bottled so that the purity of the captured flavors is preserved. It doesn’t spend any time mellowing in wooden barrels. It is the pure, fragrant essence of the mirabelle plum captured in a bottle. Taken literally, “mira belle” means a reflection of beauty. It’s an apt description.
Just south of Luxembourg is the Lorraine region of France. Together, Luxembourg and Lorraine produce about 80% of the world’s mirabelle plum harvest, about 15,000 tons. The harvest lasts for a couple months, usually in July and August, and the fruit is only around for a couple weeks in stores. That is one reason that the vast majority of mirabelle plums, over 90%, are turned into preserves or eau-de-vie. It’s a good way of storing a large crop that doesn’t have much of a shelf life.
A better reason for turning plums into eau-de-vie is that it is perhaps the highest, noblest use of the plum. What else can one do with a plum? Plum tarts are nice (and seemingly everywhere right now), but one can only eat so many plum tarts. Put up plum preserves? Dry prunes?
Taking my catch home, I sit out on the balcony with a bowl of mirabelle plums and a glass of mirabelle eau-de-vie. Mirabelle plums are not as interesting eaten out of hand, compared to Italian blue plums or red plums. Other plums are a little more tart, eventually becoming even sweeter in time. The mirabelles are pleasantly sweet though lacking in acidity. But what makes a slightly insipid raw fruit blossoms into a stellar distilled liquor. The softness becomes a wonderfully luscious liquor with a sweet, almost honey-like aroma. The flavor is soft, barely sweet and slightly floral. All this in a 90 proof liquor. Most whiskies are less potent than this. Yet mirabelle slides down like a much lower proof brandy. In contrast is slivovitz--blue plum brandy--which can be enjoyable, though it has some harsh undertones. Perhaps the acidity of the blue plums contributes to the resultant roughness.
Mirabelle plum eau-de-vie has now taken an honored position in the permanent collection of the Chastain liquor cabinet, alongside eau-de-vies of Kirsch and Douglas Fir. You may not be able to find Luxembourgish or Lorraine mirabelle plum eau-de-vie in your stores. However, Clear Creek Distillery of Portland makes a lovely bottle of it, and it is available at finer liquor stores and at www.clearcreekdistillery.com. As they say here, “Prost!”
