LIBATION: Le Cageolais
LIQUID TRAVEL DESTINATION: Saguenay Fjord, Quebec
LEGACY: Father and son team, Donald and Pierre-Philippe Tremblay tenderly care for their three decade old raspberry and blueberry farm to produce some of Saguenay Fjord’s finest aperitifs, sparkling wine and liqueurs. My favorite was their blueberry liqueur called the King’s Blue or Le Blue de Roi, not syrupy, just pleasantly sweet with an after note of the more tart flavor of the region’s blueberries which are smaller and more tangy than an Oregon or California blueberry.
The Saguenay Fjord area is the largest exporter in Quebec of the tiny little fruit. In fact, the blueberry is so synonymous for the Saguenay Fjord area, when locals travel outside the region, upon hearing their particular french accent, the Québécois call them “Le Bleuet” or the blueberry.
LOWDOWN: Call ahead to make an appointment at their petite tasting room and Pierre, with his bouncing head of curls in bashful English (brush up on your French as most people don’t speak much English in this area of Quebec), will happily welcome your taste buds to a berry-licious tour of ‘alcools de petits fruits’. Make sure to try their blueberry-raspberry port La Frambleu, the sparkling blueberry wine Le Cageolais and raspberry liqueur Le Muskoka – each of their berry varietals have scored endless medals in Canadian Spirit/Wine competitions. Produced since last year, Le Cageolais is the world’s only blueberry sparkling wine! Le Blue de Roi is splendid over ice cream, served chilled as a disgestif or to replace the creme de cassis in a Kir Royal. www.domainelecageot.com
(Pierre-Philippe Tremblay and trusty assistant/translator)
For all things blueberry on the opposite coast of Canada, check out Wanderfood Wednesday: Blueberry Picking in BC.