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J Winery Pear Liqueur is 30% abv. / 60 proof. When I was researching this liqueur I found out an interesting story about how it came about. In 1995 the present day Cellar Master of J Winery, Tom Meeker, was playing around with fermenting pears, on the grounds that would later become J Winery and Vineyard. This pear juice was slowly fermented to full dryness and then twice distilled in a copper alembic still, to produce a pear brandy that was 50% abv. / 100 proof. The pear brandy was then laid down in French Limousin oak barrels for ten years to age and was basically forgotten about. Then a couple of years ago J Winery's Winemaker, Oded Shakked, purchased the distilled pear brandy for the company J Wine to use. It was then blended with de-ionized (rain) water and liquid sugar to make the liqueur. The liqueur was then cold stabilized and aged for six more months before bottling earlier this year.

Before I tell you anything more about this liqueur I am going to tell you a story. I make my own liqueurs as a hobby and four years ago I was hired to work as the hard cider maker for an award winning cider company and orchard. While there, I learned that pears don't ripen fully until they have been chilled almost to freezing. So pears left on the tree will just keep making sugar but have no nice flavor, until they are picked and chilled. But if picked and chilled; they ripen, soften, and develop their full flavor. Rarely a frost comes about and chills the fruit before they have a chance to be picked. In this case, if the pears aren't harvested immediately, and sold right away, you end up with a load of rotten fruit.