Cantillon Fou' Foune

A marvellous wine grower's house with a view on the Rhône river. A large table with a perfectly roasted young goat and delicious wines (Hermitage and Saint-Joseph).

Around the table, only good friends.

It was 1998. There was a friendly atmosphere, the food was excellent, it was a perfect occasion to improve the world and let our imagination run away. Improving the world has remained an illusion, but one of our fantasies has become reality.

François Daronnat, an apricot grower nicknamed "Foufoune" was one of the participants.

He kept on singing the praises of his "Bergeron" apricots : they were the most natural, the most beautiful, the most delicious, sweet and acid at the same time.

"With those apricots, I could brew you a beer, dear François", I told him. But my spirits got bemused by the great Rhône wines and I forgot all the dreams and crazy ideas which pop up at these great moments.

Foufoune, however, hadn't forgotten about the apricots and the beer: on a morning in July 1998, I discovered all of a sudden 300 kgs of deliciously mature "Bergerons" outside the Cantillon brewery.

Foufoune was obviously someone who kept his promises.

It was up to us now. The result was perfect and the limited production of apricots lambic was destined for a small part of the French market.

Due to the success of our provençal beer, 1200 kgs of apricots are delivered now every year to the Cantillon brewery. The fruits are stoned by hand before being soaked in 2 years old lambic. The beer extracts the taste and the aromas very quickly and the Fou'Foune is bottled after two months. The beer is rather sour, slightly turbid and has a pale gold colour. Its production is limited to 3000 liters a year. A large part of the bottles go back to the region where these apricots come from. People there consider the Fou'Foune Cantillon as a local beer.

The Fou'Foune Cantillon is available in 75 cl (1/1) bottles.