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Maitrank

Maitrank or Maiwein is a seasonal flavored wine, a speciality of the Pays d'Arlon, a region in Belgium. It is obtained by the maceration of fragrant woodruff inflorescences, still called "queen of the woods" or "false lily of the valley" and which blooms in May, hence the name, in white wine from Luxembourg Moselle, to which sugar, sliced oranges and cognac are added.

The fragrant woodruff is the basic ingredient.

History

In German as well as in Moselle Franconian (a Germanic language spoken in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and in Moselle) Maitrank literally means "May drink" and Maiwein "May wine". It is difficult to say exactly when this drink appeared. Some documents of the Benedictine monks of Prüm Abbey in Germany already mentioned it in the 19th century. Maitrank was first mentioned by a monk from Prüm in 854 (glossed as meiowîn in Old High German and vinum maiores in Latin).
The inhabitants of the German wine-growing regions had developed the habit of tempering the acidity of the lower wines by adding seasonal fruit or plants through maceration. The monks knew that the woodruff had medicinal virtues (choleric, cholecystokinetic, tonic and antispasmodic), so they macerated it in the wine and drank the maceration in the spring to flush out the winter toxins. They made the local people taste this maceration and offered it to travelers seeking asylum. The local population soon followed suit.
With time and especially the improvement of winemaking process, the habit of macerating plants of fruit in wine gradually disappeared and Maitrank saw its vogue decline sharply in Germany and in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, without ever completely disappearing. Some families in these regions had kept the tradition and made some every year, but the recipe didn't go beyond the confidential family setting.
In the 1950s, some people from Arlon decided to bring the recipe up to date, and they added to the woodruff that gives the bitterness, the beverage softening and aromatic elements, that are now part of the basic recipe of the Maitrank: sugar, sliced oranges and cognac (the latter is also useful to slow down the second fermentation).

Medal of the Confrérie Royale du Maitrank d'Arlon.

This recipe was a great success and re-launched Maitrank to the point that as soon as 1955, a municipal commission of the city of Arlon organized for the first time a Maitrank and broom day during May. Since then, every year, Arlon is animated by the "Maitrank festivals" on second to last weekend in May. In May 1964, the Confrérie du Maitrank d'Arlon was created in order to make the drink, the town and its region better known.

In Germany and other regions of Germanic culture

The maceration of fragrant woodruff in white wine (or its commercial equivalents) is the basis of several variants that can be found in Luxembourg, Belgium (Eupen-Malmedy), Germany, Austria and Alsace where this kind of drink is called Maiwein, Maibowle or Maitrank ("May wine, May punch, May drink") and in regions in (of) the United States of German culture where it's called May wine.

Sources

• Website of the la Royale Confrérie du Maitrank
• "Le Maitrank, divin apéro arçonnais", Le Vif, 14th of August 2015

External Links

• Organiser: Commission des fêtes d'Arlon
• La Confrérie du Maitrank d'Arlon
• Website dedicated to the Maitrank Arlon
• Le Maitrank arlonais (Maison Manigar)

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