Birectifier Analysis of Destilaria Tonico Medronho

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What this post is really about for me is testing the birectifiers I produced myself in my glassblowing workshop. I am about to release a birectifier I produce myself with a dramatically lowered price. I’ve sunk countless hours into this passion project.

I’m not going to go into what Medronho is, but it is probably part of my destiny. I’ve recently collected numerous bottles for case studies on a trip to the Algarve. This particular Medronho is not the finest, but particularly enjoyable. In surveying Medronhos, it will no doubt help us understand what is quality, what is economy, and then what is fineness. This Medronho has a cleanness and that unmistakable character, but not the intensity of finer examples. This only stretched 1:100 in the exhaustive test and it will be interesting to see what finer examples are capable of. Medronho may be like agricole rum or tequila; it may be described as penetrating, but not exactly persistent. It begs to be in a cocktail.

30% white bubble Test: Medronho character and cleanness, nothing out of place. Something about this spirit makes it abnormally enjoyable at 30%. Even enjoyable hot, grog style. Medronho is probably very good in hot cocktails.

Exhaustive Test: 1:100

This Medronho is from an economy producer with a formal distillery (so not exactly up in the hills…). Some of these economy producers also get their fruit from formal orchards as opposed to foraged in the hills, but I don’t have enough knowledge to understand if that is the case or if it has any bearing on quality. My guess is that economy producers only differ by possibly adding exogenous yeast and using a batch column still that distills at a slightly higher ABV than a traditional Portuguese alembic. However, how do we explain all of that ethyl acetate in an unaged spirit? Notice we have above average ethyl acetate in the front, but no obvious free volatile acidity in the back. Does that make spontaneous fermentation more likely and imply very long fermentation durations that I believe are associated with Medronho? Traditional fermentation then they just clean it up with a single pass through a batch column still?

More case studies will no doubt teach us more and I’ll certainly learn more in the years to come exploring the Algarve.

On to the next birectifier and next case study!

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Fraction 1: Concentrated to the point of non-culinary aromas.

Fraction 2: Less concentrated version of fraction 1 as expected.

Fraction 3: Fairly neutral as expected. Possible start of fusel oil?

Fraction 4: Obvious fusel oil, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Fraction 5: Slightly cloudy, but not exactly louched. Droplets on surface. Very light for a fraction 5 of such an interesting spirit. Light & floral. No sign of the Medronho character until you take a sip. Mildly acrid on the palate and feels more concentrated after taking a sip. I started with my usual 1:1 fraction 5 dilution. Then I mixed more in a different glass as a 2:1 to see if any particular nuance became more salient. Nothing magical happened, but may be worth keeping in the rotation of ideas. Palettable and not acrid as a 2:1.

Fraction 6: Clean with very little describable character. No significant gustatory acidity. No sign of flaws.

Fraction 7: Clean with very little describable character. No significant gustatory acidity. No sign of flaws.

Fraction 8: Clean, no significant gustatory acidity. No sign of flaws.