Visiting and Tasting La Grihète
An Air of Provence: Nyons is nestled in the Drôme department (Southeastern France), and in Nyons is nestled a little brewery, La Brasserie artisanale du Sud, producing a small range of beers without additives or preservatives and unpasteurized. Having discovered the American microbreweries, Jean-Marc Raffner, Fabienne Delorme, and Philippe Rioux initiated the concept in Provence in 1999.
The brand’s name, La Grihète, means “The Cricket” in Provençal. The brewery’s building is an old oil mill — Nyons specializes in olives and olive oil (with a registered designation of origin label). In short, we are in a place where taste is important in a land renowned for its concern with taste…
I enjoyed a wheat beer called “Mange-Soif” (4.7% BV), a wheat much more inspired by its German colleagues than by the Belgian ones. Not surprisingly, then, we find banana and clove overtones. However, this one is not so bitter as in Bavaria, but the malty sweetness is present. We find also this typical phenolic character, the result of fermenting under pressure.
This “Mange-Soif” is a good refreshing beer; the only discordant factor is that it’s slightly too watery. But taste it surely has…