They are known the world over for producing some of the best wines in the world: now the French have set their sights on nipping into the international whisky market.
“Not many of our clients are surprised that French whisky exists,” says Matthieu Acar, a whisky salesman and French whisky specialist at La Maison du Whisky in Paris. “But a lot of them are surprised at how many French whiskies there are.”
When it comes to quantity and quality, the Scots — purveyors for centuries of uisge-beatha (or “water of life” in Gaelic) — will take some beating.
Photo: AFP
According to the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), more than 1.28 billion bottles of scotch are shipped from Scotland every year. Laid end to end, those bottles would stretch about 350,000 kilometers — 90 percent of the distance to the Moon.
In comparison, France’s whisky production would barely break through the atmosphere.
But with 42 distilleries creating at least one whisky, according to the French Whisky Federation (FWF), the French seem determined to grab a share of what has become a lucrative market.
The Scotch whisky industry adds US$7.1 billion to the UK economy in 2018, according to SWA estimates. Although the French are far behind, Nicolas Le Brun — official programmer for the annual Whisky Live salon in Paris — believes the future is bright.
“French whisky is still at a relatively young age in its history. It appeared at the beginning of the 80s, so this is really the beginning,” Le Brun says.
“But that said, with our expertise (in distilling), our culture of consumption and again the culture of producing drinks like Armagnac, Cognac and Calvados, there’s a good chance that in the years to come French whisky will find its niche.”
MIXING THE GRAIN
There may be an abundance of Scotch on the international market, but the French have some aces up their sleeves.
The French are Europe’s top cereal producers and the number one consumers of whisky in Europe. And in an era where consumer choice is increasingly determined by gluten-free and organic options, young producers are taking heed.
“For us, it’s all about taking the raw materials — cereals which we grow organically on our land — and transforming them into completely organic whiskies,” says Frederic Revol, co-founder of the Domaine des Hautes Glaces distillery high in the French Alps.
“Everything is organic, everything grows within 15 kilometers of the distillery, so we use barley, the classic Scotch whisky grain, as raw material but we also use different grains like rye or spelt.”
Alexandre Sirech, co-founder of the Bellevoye brand, says his passion for whisky came from a decisive experience of working in a Speyside distillery.
“I realized that good Scotch whisky is made of cereals and that the king of cereals in Europe is France,” he says. “So it was while working in Scotland and learning how to make whisky that I said to myself: ‘One day it would be nice if we could make French whisky with good French grain, and our malted barley in particular.’”
His experience paid off: in 2018 Bellevoye’s “Black Label” beat rivals from Scotland and Japan in a blind tasting of “peated whisky” at the Brussels Whisky Festival.
‘DIFFERENT AROMAS’
Armorik, which pioneered French whisky production by creating a blend in 1987, is now a leader in the domestic whisky market. Making whisky “traditionally, with a Breton touch,” Armorik matures its whiskies in French wine casks.
Another 12 distilleries are expected to open in France in 2020, according to the FWF.
And Armorik CEO David Roussier believes the French — when it comes to taste and quality — can give the Scots a run for their money.
“I think we’re totally competing (on the international market). In blind tasting it’s difficult to say who would be the best, a Scotch, American, Irish or French,” he says. “The French bring something else, a very different way of working, a very different way of ageing. Obviously the history of French wine making means we also have a lot of barrels to age our whiskies in.”
That helps to bring out different aromas, he added.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby