mornin' researchers,

...I would very much prefer someone with some wine/foodie background
rather than a general researcher on this particular question please...

granny likes peaches so she tripped over this rinquinquin aperitif in her
searches.  I have no luck in the kitchen but I like knowing about
things *of* the kitchen.  I hope this isn't a dumbass question, but
could you tell me what are 'fishings' exactly?  I don't know this
term.  this is what I found on a website (one of those 216. dealios,
so I'm not going to post the link).

Spirituous drink obtained by distillation of fishings. 
Family : Brandies of fruits 
Alcohol : yes 

List cocktails with brandy of fishings
 
Smut 
juice of oranges, red wine, Pepsi Cola, brandy of fishings, 
 
Bermuda Triangle 
juice of oranges, ambré rum, brandy of fishings, 
 
I'd also like to know if you've used tried rinquinquin or used it in
any of your food preparation and if you liked it, but that would be a
bonus surprise.

thanks for educating granny,
GB

Have a look at these two sites:
http://galerie.vals.free.fr/gallery3.htm
www.parcoilfruttetodelmonte.it/archivio_fotografico_del_parco.htm

They don't really explain it, but do show pictures which imply
fishings are some variety of fruit in the peach/nectarine/plum family,
also known as drupes or stone fruit.

I suspect this may be a result of a mistranslation somewhere along the
line, since in an online English-Italian dictionary, when I enter
fishing or peach, both words come up as pesca

Also, more importantly given that rinquinquin is French, when I enter
peach in the English-French dictionary it comes up with peche, and
when I enter fishing, it comes up with pecher as meaning "to fish".
(Note both French words have a ^ over the e.)

ah, very interesting.  so you think a peach crossed with a perch
somewhere along the line, eh?  ;-)

just from the description how rinquinquin is made from peach tree
leaves, my guess was that 'fishings' might be the salvage or hanging
chad of a peach -- the leaves, pit, peelings, etc. -- then they would
'fish' those large pieces out after they contributed their flavor. 
had not come across this word before and thought it might be some
cooking term that someone might recognize immediately.

I'm still a little 'fuzzy' on the meaning here but you've add quite a
few clues to consider.

thanks ac67!  you always add a lot to my questions.

It's is an aperitif made by macerating peaches in white wine.

"Peche" (with a ^ over the first e) has several meanings in French,
including "fishing." In the case of this aperitif, the definition is
"peach."

dtc

I actually had the same thought initially, and that may still be it,
since I also found a website which mentioned grapevine fishings:
http://www.molliersavoieshop.com/product_info.php?products_id=204&language=en
I haven't found that anywhere else though, and this product is peach
also, so it may be another mistranslation.
Dancethecon's comment further validates the mistranslation theory.

I think 'fishings' is almost certainly a mistranslation based on a
confusion of the two meanings of pêche.

I looked up 'fishing' and 'fishings' in my handy-dandy unabridged OED,
and found no peachy meanings. Likewise, there's nothing applicable in
the unabridged Merriam-Webster 3rd International Dictionary. One might
say that these reference sources are virtually unimpeachable, if you
will forgive the pun.

If 'fishings' has a non-piscatory meaning related to brandy, I would
think that either the OED or Merriam-Webster would have fished it out
or distilled it. ;-)

wow, looks like I needed the services of a translator instead of any
epicurean.  thanks to you both very much.

I'll keep this question open in case a researcher has anything to add
or wants to tell me about their fishing experiences of the non-carpish
kind.

The closest thing I could think of in the beverage world is finings,
which are substances such as isinglass, Irish moss, gelatin or egg
white which are added to wine or beer to clarify it.  They attract
various types of compounds or impurities which would cause cloudiness,
then settle to the bottom of the barrel (or other container), after
which the clarified beverage is removed for further processing or
packaging.  However, you wouldn't describe a beverage as a brandy of
finings, since they aren't used for the fermentation or flavoring
(although they can affect flavor by what they remove, either for the
better or worse).  Maybe the connection is that finings settle things
to the "bottom of the barrel" and something which is "bottom of the
barrel" is "the pits" and peaches have pits and...  or maybe not.  :-)

I consider myself something of a foodie so I decided to take on this
search. Very frustrating but fun. I?m inclined to order some
RinQuinQuin the next time I have the chance. I found a wonderful
example of the mistranslation everyone else identified.


http://www.nice-art.com/aperitif/rinquinquin.htm
RinQuinQuin 

Google Translation
Description:
Our sun with the grace to make produce in our orchards, of the fruits
of all savours. Alliance of these fruits to best of our wines were
born, inter alia, the famous wines of orange, nut or Rinquinquin (wine
of fishing).

Each variety of yellow peaches and white macerated in a selected white
wine confers on RinQuinQuin its good taste of fruit, vanilla and core

All this peachifying got me curious about the meaning of the word
'RinQuinQuin'. This is interesting:

"RinQuinQuin (pronounced, nasally, ran-can-can) is an aperitif made
with white wine, alcohol, infusions of peaches, peach tree leaves and
sugar. In the Provençal language, the term RinQuinQuin suggests an
invigorating drink (from the verb requinquilhar : to cheer up)."

http://www.majesticprovence.com/scripts/fiche_produit.php?uint_prodId=313

good one, Pink!

found this in the Patriot Ledger:

"It looks like it would be a bad pun even on the best of days, but
aperitif RinQuinQuin (about $14 for a 750 ml bottle) from Henri
Bardouin is actually pronounced rahncahncahn.  It's a term that
children in France who don't feel well use when asking Grandma for a
treat, and, to use another French word, one that is completely
apropos.

This white wine, heady with peach flavor as well as apricot and
vanilla undertones, manages to balance sweetness with complexity. 
RinQuinQuin has become an instant hit at our house.  In fact, I've
taken to jealously guarding the bottle to prevent my wife from giving
so many samples to friends and neighbors that she empties it in the
process."

hey, grannies need treats too and this granny would settle for a crate
of this stuff.

Granny, by all means treat yourself to a hearty sip of this nectar.

You're already a peach in my book. :-)

I shall -- if I can find it here in Outer Boondox.  maybe
Ficus-Pargillus has it in stock.  I will call first, right after a
severe head cold so I can come correct on that nasal pronuncation.

man, we have a 'bad pun rising' motif happenin' on this thread, don't we?

...gone fishin' for treats...
GB

Granny B,

The Majestic Provence link in my earlier comment offers the peachy
goodie for about twenty bucks. Sounds like a nice price to me, but I
don't know a whole lot about the cost of hooch, since I mostly just
guzzle cheap Cold Duck, with an occasional Miller Lite when I am
feeling lowbrow (if not Lowenbrau).

Ooh, cheaper still:

http://www.vintagewines.biz/vws/indivprod.cfm?pid=1800

I am starting to want some of this stuff, even if it is made out of
squished peach leaves.

Best price yet:

http://www.liquorama.net/product.asp?0=0&1=0&3=18734

Same price as above:

http://www.finewinehouse.com/product.asp?0=239&1=244&3=1591

RinQuinQuin is one of "Pop's End-Bin Wines," which may mean that the
bottle has been kicked around the old wine-cellar a few times and has
cockroach eggs stuck to its cork, but ohhhhh my goodness, it sells for
only $12.38 at "Pop's Wine & Spirits":

http://www.popswine.com/pops/main/category.asp?category=899

Hi again. I just had a brief time when I posted my comment about the
definitions of "peche." I'm back from running beaucoup errands, and
can expand on the translation problem a bit.

To be sure, I looked up the word "peche" (^ over the first "e") in a
French dictionary, and the first definition is "fishing." Definition
number two is "peach." Other definitions for "peche" (^ over the first
"e") include "fishing season" and the noun "slap."

Since "fishing" is the definition listed first, I bet that's why the
web translators are coming up with the nonsensical "brandy of
fishings." This is one of those times when the web translators fail.

There's another "peche" in French that has two é's. (I hope that
symbol comes out when I paste this into my comment box. It should be
an "e" with an accent aigu.) Péché is a masculine noun meaning "sin."

BTW, Granny, I'm a foodie, too, and love learning about food stuff and
kitchen stuff.  :-)

I don't have any Rinquinquin--though I bet I'd like it!--but I do have
a French aperitif made from walnuts. Yummy!

Search strategy: None. I used my knowledge of French, with a
confirmation from my handy-dandy reference books.

Best wishes,
dtc?

gee, it looks like peche:French as snow:Eskimo or some such analogy
which is way too early to form.  I surely appreciate you taking on
this bit of puzzlement, dtc.  we definitely needed an offline source
on this.

Pink, thanks for all the purchasing choices and that's probably the
way to go.  UPS shipping is about $12, not too bad, so I'm ordering
from Liquorama.  please post as a answer.  I appreciate all your hard
work along with these dear commenters.

In french southern area, there is an old traditional song in
"provencal" (the local ancient dialect) that explains how the
rinquinquin was born :

A woman was preparing a drink for her husband who was working in the fields.
She had a pitcher full of white wine. 
On her way to the fields, she passed by a peach tree and she took a
handful  of peach tree leaves she put into the wine  in order to add
more flavour.
Doing so, she invented the Rinquinquin.

Today, I know of only one Rinquinquin manufacturer. He uses the fruit,
rather than the leaves, plus suggar plus additional flavours macerated
in white wine.

Now, about the name:
first, you must know that the song suggests that the husband was
working so hard that he was tired enough at night to fail in his
husband role.
After he tried drinking Rinquinquin , he became vigourous enough to
make his wife happy again.

Make me think that the provencal word Rinquinquin has the same roots
as the French word "requinquer" which more or less means
"reinvigorate"

One more anecdote:
some people, making wine for their own, are still using a boiled
mixture of wine and peach tree leaves to clean barrels before to fill
them up with the wine of the year. For that purpose, they use a
specific variety of peach trees that grows very well in grape fields.


Very best regards from southern France.

and hello from America!

thanks so much, jpls, for taking the time to flavor granny with all
these local customs.  it was very interesting reading.

cheers!
GB

well, all the fish stuff was very interesting but if you want to hear
from someone else who's had it - my husband is mad at me because i
finished the bottle we brought home from provence in january, so now i
have to find some more. it is great stuff. like fresh peaches in wine.
and today i made some peach gelatto and added some. wonderful.

The problem comes, as suggested in one of the comments, from a
mistranslation. The words in french for 'fishing' and for 'peach' are
the same.

search strategy : experience as a translator.

I'm a wine enthusiast and a French culture buff.  (shhh tell no one.)
I' m looking at a bottle of this heavenly elixir right now, and
enjoying my second glass.  I have an Henri Bardouin RinQuinQuin a la
Peche.  The French description on the label translates loosely to " a
variety of white and yellow peaches, vanilla, and apricot are infused
with white wine to create the fine taste of rinquinquin."  The Peche
(say pesh and say ran-can-can) is for Peach not fish. :-) It's a
product of Provence (say Pro-Vahns).  Should be served after dinner to
aid in digestion OR just enjoyed with a splash of high quality, ice
cold bottled water (Evian or better)  Delicious!   Kiss Gramma on both
cheeks.

Black Bourgeoisie in Baltimore