Clear Creek Distillery

Addie Bassin's had a tasting by Clear Creek Distillery, which is based in Portland, Oregon and makes grappas, eaux de vie and liqueurs. The owner, they said, studied distilling methods in Alsace and Switzerland and makes genuine European-style digestifs.

It's all true. The Williams Pear brandy is on a par with any Poire William I tasted in France, and the pinot noir grappa has the pleasant bite of a good Italian grappa or a nice marc. These pleasures don't come cheap -- $25 for the 375ml bottle -- but I'd had a hankering for a good eau de vie and grappa for some time.

The liqueurs at the tasting were not my cup of tea, but then not everyone likes the dry alcohol taste of eaux de vie, so each to his own. The rep also had a Mirabelle and a Kirchwasser that Addie Bassin's doesn't carry but it seems Ace Beverage does, so I will pay them a visit one of these days because both of those were on a par with a high-quality European product. I tasted the muscat grappa, but didn't like that nearly as well as the pinot noir.

One quirky specialty was a spruce brandy. This, the rep admitted, was not a true brandy like the others, which are actually distilled from the fruit, but a grain alcohol infused with the flavor of tender spruce buds. I enjoyed it, but it's doubtful that I would pay $50 for the 375ml bottle that this very labor-intensive product commands, even if it were available here.

Kudos to the owner, Steve McCarthy. He took a liking a quarter-century ago to these European fruit brandies and realized that his parents' Oregon orchard, which grows particularly fine pears, would be ideal for transplanting the tradition to the U.S. They also make a single malt, which I'd be interested to try sometime.

Our first set of guests to try it really liked the pear brandy. Oddly, the distillery rep said they serve the eau de vie from the freezer, which I think sacrifices a lot of the subtle flavor of the brandy. I remembered too late the technique of some places in Europe of swishing some ice through the snifter and then pouring the brandy in to help open up the flavor. Will try that next time.