This text is part of the special book Plaisirs
The enthusiasm of Quebecers for local products has enabled several sectors, including that of maple or maple alcohol, to experience marked growth. So much so that confusion often reigns between names, characteristics and occasions to maximize their tasting. But do not panic ! We asked two professionals to guide us through this maze and share their vision of this sector with us.
Acers, acerums, wines, brandies, spirits, creams, liqueurs and beverages… Maple alcohols are more and more numerous on the market. The SAQ alone offers 73 different ones, but there are even more in sugar bushes and distilleries. It is therefore easy to imagine the hesitation that can take hold of many people when they have to gauge the products that will best suit their tastes and the use they want to make of them.
Three main categories
To dispel any doubts, Nathalie Decaigny, from Domaine Acer, the very first maple syrup producer to have produced maple alcohols (and not maple) in Quebec, explains to us that there are three main categories of alcoholic beverages in Quebec liquid gold: products flavored with maple, consisting of an alcohol base (wine, cider, whiskey, etc.) to which maple syrup is added, so that they are always sweet; distilled maple products (acerums or maple spirits), obtained from the distillation of fermented maple wine and containing more than 35% alcohol; and, finally, fermented maple products (acers or maple sap wines), which rely on the transformation of the sugar naturally contained in maple sap into alcohol using yeasts and which display 17% alcohol content. maximum alcohol.
From this principle, creativity has no limits. Or, at least, it is slowly being codified thanks to the producers themselves, who don’t want the artistic vagueness around maple alcohols to lead to just about anything.
Distinctive products
The palates of Quebeckers, traditionally sweet, have enjoyed maple-flavoured alcohols for years, such as the Coureur des bois and Sortilège ranges of liqueurs, spirits and alcoholic creams. The Shefford Distillery, located in Estrie and acquired in 2020 by the Bourassa family of maple syrup producers, offers products from this range, namely a maple whiskey and a maple cream.
“We incorporate our best maple syrups, so that the taste of our Tomahawk whisky, which benefits from three years of aging, is closer to that of a cognac than that of a usual whisky, with a note more maple,” says Hugo Bourassa.
The co-owner of the distillery is also proud to offer a gin and a vodka whose base alcohol, normally made up of grains, is made with distilled maple sap from the sugar bush, which results in products with a more enveloping and more accessible texture. However, he admits to being a fan of the two acerums – a white and an aged brown – in his range.
“Acerum is, in my opinion, one of the best expressions of our terroir,” he says. It is not a sweet alcohol, but it is entirely made from distilled maple syrup and meets strict specifications that guarantee the quality of the product, without preventing us from being creative. The brown acerum from the Shefford Distillery is also aged for two years in small barrels that have already held whiskey and maple syrup, which gives it a nice complexity.
Vinify maple sap
Nathalie Decaigny and her spouse, Vallier Robert, assisted in the development of the maple alcohol industry. In the 1990s, Vallier even provoked it, working for several years with experts of all kinds (oenologists, winegrowers, chemists, MAPAQ advisers), when there was still no production permit for maple-based alcoholic beverages.
From this long series of trials and errors was born a particular range of products on the border between maple syrup and viticulture: acers, more commonly known as maple sap wines. “It is often thought that, because they come from maple, these alcohols are sweet and without complexity. But we have proven that they can confuse the most skeptical, with a wide spectrum of colors, sweetnesses and aromas,” explains Ms.me Decaigny.
Concretely, by selecting and assembling maple syrups as one would with grape varieties, and by playing with yeasts and fermentation times, Domaine Acer has designed a range of unique products.
“Our approach is always one of purity, says Nathalie Decaigny. We wonder what the maple can tell us, how it wants to express itself. It is an exceptional natural and sustainable product with immense potential. And it grants us an equally vast space of freedom! »
The Domaine Acer, the Shefford Distillery and the many players in the maple-based or maple-based alcohol sector are therefore innovators. “But we are also helping to develop the identity of Quebec drinking, in the same way as Nordic wines and ciders,” adds Nathalie Decaigny, who gives us hope for great things in the future.
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the Duty, pertaining to marketing. The drafting of Duty did not take part.