Sortilège Maple Cream

Review: Sortilège Maple Cream 85/100
a review by Chip Dykstra (Aka Arctic Wolf)
Posted on July 21, 2013

Sortilège Maple Cream is a Canadian Whisky based cream liqueur produced by Mondia Alliance Wine and Spirits in Montreal, Canada. It’s construction is apparently based upon an authentic ‘heritage’ recipe using the highest grade all natural Canadian Maple Syrup, farm fresh dairy cream, and authentic Canadian Whisky. The product arrives in a 750 ml bottle and is sold at 17 % alcohol by volume.

In the Bottle 3.5/5

The Sortilège Maple cream arrives in the stubby wine bottle shown to the left. The bottle and the label seem rather drab to me, and if I saw this on a liquor shelf in a nearby store, I would probably pass it over very quickly. The other cream popular cream liquors such as Baileys, and St-Rémy à la Crème, all come in much nicer packaging. In my opinion, the look of this bottle seems to imply bottom of the shelf price and quality.

(I wish Canadian Manufacturers would quit shooting themselves in the foot by ignoring quality packaging. Sortliege Maple Liqueur established a strong brand image with is sleek ice-wine style bottle; yet it seems the parent company has abandoned quality packaging as part of its thinking.)

In the glass 8.5/10

The cream is somewhat thick in my glass with a nice light golden beige colour of maple syrup and cream. As the glass sits, the light aromas of sweet caramel and maple are brought forward with nice accents of chocolate, coffee, and hazelnuts. There is a very light spiciness apparent giving me glimpses fresh sandalwood and ever so light hints of cinnamon, ginger and rye spice.

In the Mouth 51/60

The aroma from the creme translates almost completely to the mouth. Perhaps the nutty hazelnut is more firm in the flavour than it was upon the nose, and maybe I taste more butterscotch than maple. However, everything about this cream liquor is yummy and inviting with seemingly just the right amount of sweetness to go with the flavours of coffee, cocoa and rye spice to keep me sampling just a little more.

This cream tastes yummy in my morning coffee, and tastes even better served on ice cream.

In the Throat 13.5/15

Long lingering flavours of creamed coffee, chocolate with butterscotch and hazelnuts coat my throat. There even seems to be a tiny hit of rye spice right at the end of the taste experience. Very Nice!

The Afterburn 8.5/10

Quite simply, the Sortliege Maple Cream is a rock solid cream liquor with seemingly all the right elements in place.

You may read some of my other Cream Liqueur Reviews (click the link) if you wish to have some comparative reviews of some of the other Creme Liqueurs I have reviewed.

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My Scores are out of 100 and you may (loosely) interpret them as follows:

0-25     A spirit with a rating this low would actually kill you.
26-49   Depending upon your fortitude you might actually survive this.
50 -59  You are safe to drink this…but you shouldn’t.
60-69   Substandard swill which you may offer to people you do not want to see again.
70-74    Now we have a fair mixing spirit.  Accept this but make sure it is mixed into a cocktail.
75-79    You may begin to serve this to friends, again probably still cocktail territory.
80-84    We begin to enjoy this spirit neat or on the rocks. (I will still primarily mix cocktails.)
85-89    Excellent for sipping or for mixing!
90-94    Definitely a primary sipping spirit, in fact you may want to hoard this for yourself.
95-97.5 The Cream of the Crop
98+       I haven’t met this bottle yet…but I want to.

Very loosely we may put my scores into terms that you may be familiar with on a Gold, Silver, and  Bronze medal  scale as follows:

70 – 79.5    Bronze Medal (Recommended only as a mixer)
80 – 89.5     Silver Medal (Recommended for sipping and or a high quality mixer)
90 – 95         Gold Medal (Highly recommended for sipping and for sublime cocktails.)
95.5+            Platinum Award (Highest Recommendation)