AGUARDENTE TRAVESSA DO VIMEIRÃO
José Manuel Elias
MARMELETE
967 066 967
37°18’39.93”N 8°40’9.92”W
José Manuel Elias has been distilling medronho for over thirty years but acknowledges that after all this time it is not as good as he would like it to be. That is because nature, regardless of how exact men are, always has a word to say. If there are years that it rains in the right quantity and at the right time and the fruit is born with the precise sweetness, there are others that are drier and therefore produce fruit that is also more dry and tasteless. It is at these times that the beverage that drips into the distiller’s tank is not as plentiful or as sweet as he would like it to be. But outside this uncontrollable detail, José Elias controls the whole process in a methodical and dedicated fashion.
At the Travessa do Vimeirão, between each “boil”, the copper of the still and its corresponding head, as well as the utensil used to take out the lees from the boiler, are very well washed to ensure they do not contaminate the flavour of the beverage. There is only one pause and that is when the aguardente begins to weaken. Then José Elias exchanges the bowl of aguardente for the pitcher of the weak aguardente and in the following hours he passes round glasses full of his aguardente to neighbours and friends.