Labelle Bercloux (La Brasserie de Bercloux i)

La Brasserie de Bercloux is a small French brewery punching well above its weight. Alistair Gilmour reports

You know where you are with the sound of keg on concrete and the echo of mallet on bung.

The mind opens its ‘brewery, beer, pub’ homepage, clicks through the menu, then invites the other senses to join the company.

But when the thermometer is rising through the high 20s, a welcome breeze rustles a field of sweetcorn, sunflowers nod lazily and a distant tractor thrums its way along row upon row upon row of vineyard, the accompanying aluminium clatter confuses all geography.

France is normally associated with the great wines of the world, but French beer is rarely mentioned in such elevated terms. It is treated as a refreshment, not as a serious drink, and though there are pockets of real regional ‘finds’, the industry is dominated by a few large companies.

Ask for une pression in a café and it’s more than likely you’ll be served something from Kronenbourg, Kanterbrau or Dutch giant Heineken. And there’s nothing wrong with that – a shaded table and the imminent arrival of moules marinière is the ideal setting for a Fischer – but sometimes the desire to move sideways from beer’s equivalent of cabernet sauvignon becomes too strong to ignore.

Throughout France at this time of year, grapes of every variety have been harvested to make wines of every style and Cognac production is about to begin (to be completed by midnight on March 31).

However, in South-West France, close to the Atlantic coast, where the sunflowers are on their way to supermarket shelves as cooking oil and sa.....

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By Alastair Gilmour

Section : International Brewery

Page number : 36