If you enjoy Belgian beer and happen to live in the United States of America, you have Vanberg & DeWulf to thank for many of your finest drinking experiences. When Wendy Littlefield and Don Feinberg started importing Belgian beer 30 years ago they were renegades, determined to expose the American beer drinker to what they felt was the best beer in the world.
In conjunction with Vanberg & DeWulf’s 30th anniversary I talked to Wendy and Don about their various experiences through the years. I will share our conversation with you in a series of posts. The first one tells the story of howMichael Jackson (The Beer Hunter) told Don about a beer called Saison Dupont. Saison Dupont is known today as one of the very best beers in the world. But it wasn’t always that way.
This is the story of Saison Dupont and Vanberg & DeWulf.
Don Feinberg:
I always used to chide Michael…I’d say: ‘Michael, you have the easy job. You just go around, taste the beer and write about them. The rest of us – us in the import business – we actually have to put our money on the line and sell it!’ As a result he would, once in a while, confide in me and tell me about products that weren’t getting the attention that they deserved. Saison Dupont was one of these products. He told me that it’s a great brewery and a great beer. He actually didn’t play it up at all how endangered it was, he just told me that ‘you really ought to go see them, because no one seems to be paying attention’.
When I did get to the brewery, they told me that they wanted us to import Moinette. I told them that ‘that’s a great beer, but the beer that I really am interested in is Saison Dupont.’ They proceeded to tell me that they were actually thinking of discontinuing Saison Dupont, which at that point was down to 2% of their sales. I said “…well, I hope you don’t do that!”
You never know what is going to end up being important, but what I think ended up being central to our joint success had to do with packaging. When we first visited them, they capped their 75 CL bottles with a driven cork. This was difficult for two reasons. It made it harder for the consumer to access the product but the other thing was that it didn’t have any of the elegance that a champagne cork closure had. At the time I did not have any experience running a brewery, so any time I had a “great idea”, I had no idea what was asking and how difficult it would be to realize this idea. In hindsight this was a good thing. I told them: ‘it’s a great product, and if you’ll sell it to me I definitely want to buy it…but would you please use a champagne cork and cage closure?’
He told me that he couldn’t, because he didn’t have the machinery. I said ‘that’s too bad, it would make a really big difference.’ He asked me if I thought that it would be that important and I said ‘yeah, I think it’s super important!’ He told me that he might be able to find a used machine. And he did.
Now that I’ve run a brewery (Brewery Ommegang) myself, I realize what I was asking. I basically came into his small brewery and said ‘hey, I like the beer that you don’t make very often and I’d like you to spend about 15,000 dollars to re-package it for me, ok?’ But they were willing to that for me.
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The Saison Dupont illustration was made by the very talented Ben Sanders.Ben is an illustration student at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He also has a great passion for beer and very we’re thankful to have him on board as an illustrator! See more of his work at his web site: http://www.bentsanders.com
