After challenging 10,000 discerning British beer-lovers to agree with his view that Kronenbourg 1664 is the most “suprême-tasting beer in the world”, French football legend Eric Cantona earlier this year vowed to swim the English Channel from France to Britain.
Having posed his fellow Kronenbourg aficionados the question, “How far would you go for a Taste Suprême?”, the former international footballer and Manchester United star stated: “Nothing is too far for Cantona. I will swim the Channel to salute your good taste.”
On 6 August, after weeks of arduous training, Cantona swapped his studs for his swimming gear to complete his 21-mile Le Big Swim. Flipping up the football-shirt style collars of his wetsuit with Gallic insouciance, the star plunged into the chilly waters off the French coast, gliding through the waters with ease courtesy of some suprême swimmers duck fat, specially created by Michelin-starred chef Michel Roux.
But the journey got easier when Cantona hopped aboard a superyacht awaiting him out of sight of the well-wishers amassed to wave him off. Here, to the strains of a band playing the Chariots of Fire theme tune, he swam the rest of the Channel in the blissfully warm waters of a luxury swimming pool.
On the other side of La Manche, Cantona hopped back into the cold water to surface on the English coast and reprise his infamously enigmatic press conference quote of 1995, telling a waiting journalist: “It’s not where the seagull gets to, it’s how it gets there.”
Like Cantona, Kronenbourg 1664 retains its strong French heritage despite having conquered the globe. Named for the year the Hatt family began their brewing empire in the Alsace region of eastern France – one handed down through eight generations – Kronenbourg 1664 is now available in more than 70 countries around the world.
Its “secret ingredient”, and the one that gives it its distinctive character, is the very best Strisselspalt hops. Dubbed “the caviar of hops”, Strisselspalt has a mild citrus flavour and is unique to Alsace. It’s what endows the beer with its delicately unique flavour and golden highlights – that and more than 350 years of know-how.
