Oh! Oh! Oh! Not only have I never heard of it, not only do I need it desperately, but it's LOCAL! And Frenchie! And thus possibly, just possibly, they might be able to find a way to order in some Suze! They'd have to lie and pretend it was a "wine" and not a "liquor", though -- damn you, WSLCB!

Thank you very much! I've already awarded my mushroom (and used up two months' quota of exclamation marks!) but I'm tempted to switch it to you. Irena would be pissed, though. So think of it as a virtual mushroom. And thank you! (!!!)

Aw, not pissed at all -- go ahead and switch the mushroom; this lead is way better than Quebec, for God's sake. And plus, your enthusiasm has gotten me intrigued about this gentian stuff. I'm going to be on the lookout for it now.

I'm very fickle with my mushroom giving, aren't I?

You're a dog. But I can't deny, it was good while it lasted...

Thank you Irena, thank you Fnarf!

You'll have to give us a report on how the Bonal tastes.

Paris Grocery has already updated their page, so future surfers should use this link -
http://parisgroceryseattle.wordpress.com/2010/07/23/paris-grocery-news-722/

And now I think I might not be able to rest until I track down a bottle of this "stone pine liqueur" I came across on their distributor's site -
http://www.alpenz.com/images/poftfolio/factsheets/Zirbenz-USA-fact-sheet.jpg

I am currently sipping a glass of Bonal. It's different than I expected, much milder. It's not just gentian but also quinine, and something else -- orange and vanilla maybe? -- in a wine base. It tastes a bit like a sweet vermouth, a bit like Lillet. I really like it.

Great tip! The shop was nice; I got some other oddball wines, too, though I passed on the $40 Domaine Tempier rosé from Bandol, probably the most famous rosé in the world. Too rich for my blood.

So...I know this is a damned old thread, but now I want to know: Fnarf, in your opinion, would this Bonal make a good Negroni (assuming one would use it in place of the vermouth)?

Hmm, probably not. It's closer to a white vermouth in flavor than a red, though it's brown and bitterer. It might make a good drink, but it wouldn't be a Negroni. Worth trying with just the gin, perhaps, maybe half and half. I dunno; I guzzled both my bottles straight, over ice.

I just checked with one of the stores and they said it's not available stateside at all. So it looks like hillpagan is right.

However... years ago my sister found some absinthe via a Czech website (when it was still illegal) and was able to order it that way. Maybe it's time to troll French wine retailers online.

Thanks for trying. That's about what I figured.

Oops! Sorry to give and then take your shroom away, Matt, but I clicked on the wrong one -- the new QL seems to jump around a lot while it's loading.

No problem. I saw the email and figured it was a mistake - no way this was better than that Quebec lead.

Sigh. One guy on there found three bottles in an obscure bottle shop in New Orleans. I'll bet there's still a few bottles out there around the country, in shops where the owner doesn't even know what it is.

Yes, Miz Orman is not making my search any easier. In fact, I have a terrible fear that the answer lies on some page where some guy says "Suze, no relation to Suze Orman, is found at..." so my search misses it.