The distillation of grape marc and wine
L’Atelier du Bouilleur, a cooperative distillery that produces eaux-de-vie in the Languedoc
Iron distillation
The craft and history of distillation
Distilling is inspired by the generations that used stills before us. Farmers have always recycled the fruits of their labor to the point of composting. The idea of waste is modern. For us, finding opportunities with local and natural ingredients means reviving almost extinct distillation methods and creating surprising spirit recipes.
We work with “Charentais” stills (originals! – our oldest dates from 1927). This ancestral method has the particularity of being done in two times: The first “heating” allows to extract all the alcohol contained in the material and to obtain a “brouilli” titrating approximately 30% Vol. of alcohol. During the second “heating”, called “repasse”, the degree of alcohol is concentrated and the alcohols are sorted out by separating the “head” on one side and the “tail” on the other, to keep only the “heart” free from the burning and toxic alcohols and the heavy and unpleasant fusels.
Distilling is taking the time with the ingredients to extract the “spirit”, as the alchemists say. In our region, the garrigue, the Mediterranean, the mountains and the seasons offer us unique fruits and plants. Our art is to capture their aromatics to restore them in our bottles.
We filter only by gravity and without any input. This way we preserve the aromatic expression of our spirits. A slight deposit or cloudiness is therefore normal. As we use live ingredients, slight variations appear between batches for the pleasure of tasting.
“I heard a husky, charming voice, a voice hysterical and as if hoarse with brandy.”
Charles Baudelaire
A day at the distillery of the Atelier du Bouilleur
The distillation of brandy at the Atelier du Bouilleur
Early in the morning, when the southern sun is still sleeping, it is time for us to light the stills. Here we work mainly on wine, today it is Fred who will boil, he makes organic wine in Laurens, commune of the appellation Faugères.
The day before we put the wine in the pot of the still, Martial keeps an eye on the first heating until noon, he waits for all the alcohol to be extracted a first time. Then it is Matthieu who takes over, he will place the alcohol obtained in the morning in a smaller still to “iron” it.
During the ironing process, Matthieu is careful to remove any alcohol that is unsuitable for pleasure drinking. He removes the heads, pampers the heating core and removes unwanted distillation tails. At the end of the day, we got enough alcohol for Fred to make his spirit.
Theresa and Martial come back from picking, our region is generous, they have bitter oranges and some varieties of Artemisia. The final alcohol is good and we decide to put the harvest in maceration so that Fred can make his Vermouth.
It was a fruit day following the biodynamic calendar, the alcohol will be blended with fermenting wine in the same tempo to make Fred’s Vermouth. The sun sets soon and we share a glass of friendship, sign of the end of a busy day.
Custom distillation for individuals
Custom distillation service for individuals
Few people can still claim a tax-exempt “privilege” for distilling a little family alcohol. On the other hand, since 2003, any harvester, even an amateur, has the right to “boil”, i.e. to ferment fruits in order to make brandy. For those, there is a 50% reduction on the “excise duties” applied to the first 10 liters of pure alcohol (which corresponds to 25 liters at 40% Vol).
This already gives beautiful gustatory results – the same pomace can present a very floral or very mineral taste depending on whether it is in flower or root day. We don’t know yet where it will lead, but it’s a nice experience and we’re happy.
Rates : 1,10€/Kg of raw material
Biodynamics
The experience of biodynamics in artisanal distillation
A good part of our cooperators work in biodynamics, which made us consider its application to spirits. We are still in an experimental phase with the energization of the spirits and the work following the biodynamic calendar.
This already gives beautiful gustatory results – the same pomace can present a very floral or very mineral taste depending on whether it is in flower or root day. We don’t know yet where it will lead, but it’s a nice experience and we’re happy.
