Follow along: IG @birectifier
[We are counting down until the birectifier is no longer available. I’ve been given notice that my glass lathe needs to be in a crate on Sept. 1. If you want a birectifier, order it as soon as possible.]
[The travel birectifier deviates from the original design and has a removeable “dephlegmator” coil. The coil is attached with threaded compression fittings. The need for this change is that Customs frequently inspects the shipment and does not repack as they found it, often breaking the coil which needs to be properly immobilized.]
The travel birectifier tested flawlessly! But that is no surprise. The coil is the same size but is merely attached in a different orientation that does not alter the physics.
My first test subject for the travel birectifier was the Maria family medrohno produced by José Miguel da Silva Maria.
This stuff is wonderful, but raises some questions I wish I could ask of Maria. The spirit is particularly light in ethyl acetate relative to some of the other medronhos I would call top tier. That is not a flaw in any way, but the academic questions is simply how did that come to be? Does the producer have opinions and seek a more delicate spirit? Is the ferment conducted differently? Faster with less souring time for acetification? The spirit is distilled in a wood fired pot still like most other traditional medronhos. Is there any uniqueness to the terroir that lends to fineness and delicacy going hand in hand? As I attempt to become a connoisseur of medronho, I don’t yet know the lay of the land and that is what these case studies are about.
What I can easily say is that this is top notch medrohno that deserves to be on every back bar in Portugal. Medrohno is emerging as a new class of spirit, so fine and produced in such small quantities, that you must travel to experience it. If you exported it, the price would more than double. What other spirits can’t leave their regions for practical purposes? Certain agave spirits may end up that way as the local Mexican market starts to prize them and integrate them into their tourist economy and local luxury market (and then there are tariffs…).
If medronho becomes a luxury that can distinctly drive tourism, how does government strengthen and protect it? Grants for research and historical work (oral histories and monographs?) Basic science research such as production surveys and basic microbiology examinations? Grants for cultural festivals? Grants for apprenticeships? We build our private pursuits on a public foundation; what can that public foundation look like? Medrohno is a very important agricultural product.
Fraction 1: Particularly light. Almost what I’d expect from a fraction 2.
Fraction 2: Less concentrated version of fraction 1. Quite light towards neutral.
Fraction 3: Fairly neutral as expected. Faintest emerging fusel oil.
Fraction 4: Detectable fusel oil, but this is obscured by some fraction 5 aroma that came early. The aroma is quite good.
Fraction 5: Visually louched, covered in droplets, with powdery esters. Varietal Medronho character is evident. Not overly concentrated but quite nice.
Fraction 6: Possible varietal Medronho character without the fraction 5 esters.
Fraction 7: Slightly more character than fraction 8.
Fraction 8: Slight aroma. Detectable gustatory acidity inline with a pot distilled spirit. Zero flaws.
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