BRIAN PRESTON
In keeping with my title, The Travelling Sommelier, this month I will tell the saga of sailing for 3 weeks from Boston up the New England coast and Newfoundland and Labrador, over to Greenland and onwards to Iceland, trying various local brews along the voyage.
In Newfoundland, I tried several beers from the largest producer on the Rock, Quidi Vidi out of St. John’s. The brewery is set on a very picturesque bay near town and it also has a retail store for their merch as tourism has picked up since COVID. Iceberg Lager at 4.5% abv and $5.99 for 473ml can is brewed with pure 20,000 year-old iceberg water harvested straight from their shores. This crisp and clean lager is a true taste of Newfoundland and Labrador. 1892 Traditional Ale at 5%abv and $3.52 for 355ml can is a long-standing amber ale from the Rock with creamy notes of cereal and malt and a clean touch of mineral on the finish. In St Anthony’s at the northern end of the Rock, I visited Ragnarok Brewery, named after the old Norse term for their cyclical apocalypse or the end of the world. Near the Viking site of L’Anse aux Meadows, it is fittingly near the end of the world! Their Surt’s Flaming Sabre, 4.3 %abv, a cherry kettle sour. Surt is a fire-giant from the hot southern realm, bearer of the flaming sabre that razes the world during ragnarök. This rosy beer has lovely tropical aromas which opens on the palate with a blast of tart cherries and ends in a clean, bright sour. Beautifully crafted!
In Greenland, we stopped at Qaquortok and had Brewery Immiaq IPA made in Ilulissat, one of only two breweries I am aware of there. It was a surprisingly decent IPA and one of the most expensive beers I’ve ever bought…but with a nice golden look and clean fruitiness. Prices are quite high on everything in Greenland and Iceland so drinking in moderation was not at all difficult. On the wharf, we stopped to see the fishermen cutting up a Meinke whale and, sashimi –style, tasted the bright red meat which resembled beef with the same consistency and texture, but with a faint, fresh fish aroma in the mouth. Then it was a piece of raw blubber/skin which was too rubbery and thin to have any real flavour. I wonder what seal might have been like?
It seems that in Iceland, half the country is into beer mania, with new microbreweries and labels emerging all the time. Beer has only been legal in Iceland since 1989 after being banned in 1915 which saw pohibition on all alcoholic beverages. But in two decades, wine and spirits were again legalized. They still thought beer fed loutish, anti-social behavior and much casual drinking, so it remained banned for decades more.
I tried several brands on shore excursions in Isafjordur and Djupivogur. Einstock produces Kaldi Blonde, 5%abv, which is the most popular bottled beer in Iceland. Brewed in the Pilsner tradition and inspired by Czech lager, it is a coppery, golden color with a smooth texture and tantalizing, bitter taste from the roasted malt. The first beer produced by the brewery Bruggsmiðjan Kaldi, which was formed in 2006, is notable in that it does not add any sugar or preservatives to any of its beers. Then there was Einstock Olgerd ‘Wee Heavy’, 8%abv, brewed with locally farmed and smoked barley, spiced with native Angelica, considered a sacred plant by Vikings past. It grows hearty, strong and cold-resistant. Legend says a 17th century English monk during the plague was visited by an angel telling him that angelica would relieve the people from suffering. When Vikings started trade expeditions to England, they brought dried angelica as their currency. Key ingredients: smoked Icelandic barley, pale ale malt, crystal malt, chocolate malt, Bavarian hops, Icelandic angelica root.
In Djupivogur, the Faktor Brewery produces several really good beers including Beljandi pale ale, 5%abv at 1.500 Danish Krone about $14CAD which is more like a Bitters with sweet notes of caramel, a really refreshing and easy-going beer. I also tried their new Blackberry beer which was the perfect blend of blackberry to the cereal malt with a touch of cleansing bitterness.
Needless to say, the sights and tours were fantastic and several sites such as Akureyri have remote salmon fishing rivers frequented by such stars as Eric Clapton and Tom Cruise. I turned down the opportunity to scuba dive along the two continental plates because at $380USD it was too expensive – the Asian plate and the North American plate, form deep cliffs opposite one another with the crystal clear freezing water providing great visibility at depth. I did, however, walk the mile long fissure with cliffs on both sides that was the site filmed for ‘The Game of Thrones serving as Winterfell after they used CGI to make it very tall and frozen!
On board, I even found a great deal in the 19 Year Old Glenmorangie for only $14USD, and a couple of well priced wines too. With regards to air travel, don’t take Air Canada if you can get Porter Airlines which has better ‘on-time rates’, no charge for carry-on bag, real food, and drinks included! Once again, aircraft problems with Air Canada meant we made our air connection in Montreal but our luggage only caught up with us 3 days later on board in Sydney, Nova Scotia!
Until next month, Cheers!
Brian Preston – The Travelling Sommelier
brianpreston@hotmail.com
613.272.3129
