04/19/2026
The flavors of this year’s Zwanze b**rs are as much of the Jura region of France as they are of Brussels and that’s thanks to Florian, Paul, and Vincent of
Four years ago these fellas started making vermouth the traditional way using grapes of the Jura (Pinot Noir, Poulsard, Chardonnay) as a base and more than 70 different plants (mostly sourced from the Jura, of course) to bolster the intrinsic profiles of the grapes themselves into four different vermouth expressions, greater than the sum of their parts. Cantillon’s Jean Van Roy was so very impressed by these elixirs and of course saw blending potential with spontaneously-fermented brews and voila! the next experiment in this lauded Zwanze lineage took form!
After many tastes & many chats, the Sullivan boys made two different elixirs meant to blend well with Lambic and Kriek, respectively:
“Artémis La Blanche” is an elixir made from gentian, coriander, rhubarb root, juniper, sage, angelica, wormwood, and many other herbs, blended with Cantillon Lambic
“Artémis La Rouge” is an elixir made from verbena, marjoram, rose, apple, curry plant, wormwood, and many other herbs, blended with Cantillon Kriek
Pictures are from my visit to the Jura this past January: Florian w/ his vermouth at .levain , barrels of Bénédicte and Stéphane Tissot w**e, made from the same grape varietals Sullivan uses for their vermouth, and a bottle of La Vie est Belge, lambic aged in Tissot vin jaune barrels
Note that only a few tickets to Zwanze are left! Get em now w/ the link in bio to taste these beautiful flavors of the Jura.
Santé! to Zwanze
-Sam