Coming Soon: Bride Of Freak Of Nature, A Tea-Booze Mashup
By Anthony Todd in Food on Jun 3, 2013 7:00PM
The labels for the new wine. Photo via Facebook.
Chef Cleetus Friedman is notorious for many things, but his collaborations with beer and wine producers may be the most delicious. When he was at City Provisions, his entire draft program was made up of unique beers created by Friedman in collaboration with brewers. Last fall, he created a special sparkling wine, Freak of Nature, with Rare Tea Cellar and Illinois Sparkling Company. It was pretty awesome, it travelled with Friedman to Fountainhead and the last of it is finally gone. Thanks goodness there's a wedding coming.
Bride of Freak of Nature, the sequel sparkling wine, is about to be released. There's a special party at Fountainhead on Wednesday, June 5 to celebrate the new wine. If you were a fan of the original, this event is a must-attend.
The new version is a sparkling rose, but it's still spiked with brandy and tea in a combination that, as far as Illinois Sparkling Company can figure out, has never been tried before by anyone else.
If you're interested in the process behind the innovative wine, The Examiner followed the whole production down at Illinois Sparkling Company and brought back photos. It's a fairly dramatic process, including freezing and projectiles.
The bottles [of Bride], chilled by the time Friedman and his crew from Fountainhead arrived on May 13, were then placed neck-down in a glycol solution to freeze the “plugs” of yeast that had collected, which in turn shot out into a trash can as each bottle cap was removed.
Check out the whole process for more information, and clear your calendar on Wednesday night. In case you can't make it, the wine will be on sale by the glass and by the bottle at Fountainhead starting on Thursday.