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This week saw a Great Event here in my little village. We have come to the middle of November and it is time to distil the fruit liqueur!
Not everyone is allowed to do this, you need a licence, but our neighbour Henri is one of the lucky few.
Early in the morning I noticed the tractor rumbling past our house, drawing a trailer with a mobile distillery on board! Neighbours gathered as there was much discussion, like every year, on which way would be the best to get the tractor into the courtyard, then much shaking of hands and talking about the weather and this year’s vegetable and fruit crops.
Once the tractor was in place, Henri and Antoine, the distiller, walked over to the barn door, where there was a very quiet conversation, no doubt optimistically sizing up this year’s production.
Making liqueur, or eau de vie, is no small feat. To produce half a dozen bottles of the potent and delicious liquid you need to pick and ferment about 100 kilos of fruit.
The distilling process is not easy and needs an expert and experienced hand and eye. The fermented fruit is heated in a boiler, and the resulting steam collected to form the precious eau de vie (which literally means water of life !)
In Henri’s courtyard the huge machine was lit, and slowly heated as barrels of very strong smelling fermented fruit were tipped into the boiler. At this point the admiring crowd discreetly dispersed, not wanting to appear curious about how much liqueur was being produced.
For a good part of the day I could hear the alambic hissing and spitting from the other side of my garden wall. The men chatting all the while and occasionally groaning as something heavy had to be lifted into place.
I didn’t take pictures, and would certainly never ask how many bottles were made, but judging from Henri’s happy smile, I’d say that it is a good year for him!
Now all he has to do is label the bottles and store them away in his wine cellar, to keep company with the dozens of others already down there.
And so it will be throughout the villages of France this month. Some bottles are stored and then forgotten. A friend of ours who bought an old farmhouse in the valley, found a dozen such bottles hidden between the stones in the wall of the wine cellar. When she hauled them out and dusted them off, the old and frayed labels read 1895 …. now I wonder if that was a good year too?!
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42 comments
Not a bad neighbour to have – hope he hands you a few bottles over the fence!
Would love to have him for a neighbor! We make our own wine every year, and only wish we could make our own spirits. My husband has taken a liking to Armagnac, and has made many fruit cordials, although nothing would compare to making your very own "water of life". I hope that Henri shares a bottle or two with you! – Tonya
I have the luck to have a very good friend with the necessary licence of making "water of life" in Hungarian = pálinka, made of the very speciallittle dry plum. I chated with him nowadays about this years harvest, it was very good despite of having no rain since spring.We'll get our bottles in a couple of weeks.
Dorka http://www.dorottyaudvar.co.hu
Dear Sharon,
Oh, how interesting….thank you.
I think it was Georgeanne Brennan (in her wonderful memoir of 1970's rural living, "a Pig in Provence") who wrote about those intinerant distillers…or may it was Anne Willard in her equally fine "The Country Cooking of France"
As I recall, she (whichever one it was) wrote of how you used to see alambrics everywhere and took them for granted…until someone in Paris decided that they had to be LICENSED and regulated….at which point there were suddenly none to be found each Fall. I think the problem was compounded by the fact of the license's being, for some arcane & profoundly Parisian-beaurocratic reason, exclusively hereditary….which was all fine and good unless someone's son decided that he didn't want to go hauling a portable distillery around the countryside for his living.
I gather things/rules have changed? the 1970's WERE (and I keep forgetting this) a long time ago….
thanks for the lovely posting….
david Terry
http://www.davidterryart.com
I especially love that first photograph – the gradual darkening of the liquid. I, too, hope your neighbour is generous with sharing. 🙂
What a fun post, Sharon. I'll have to pass it onto my husband, whose grandfather held one of the last private licenses (not sure of the history on that, but so the story goes…..) to make Calva. We've consequently come into some very old, dusty bottles which we save for special occasions and newer ones that I use in cooking. x jess
This is a fascinating glimpse into the art of making liqueur. I know I learned a lot. What kind of fruit was he using? Apples, since you are in Normandy?
One year we made limoncello with lavender from our herb garden and gave for Christmas. I love the idea!
This is fascinating! I know very little about the brewing process of liquor or alcohol. Husband's Grandfather used to run a still in the hills of Kentucky during prohibition making "moonshine" whiskey which was illegal during that time. A lot of people did that back then during the depression era to make money so that they could put food on the table even though it was illegal. His nickname was "Pepper" and he was know to make the hottest whiskey around. Eventually, he was caught and the Revenoor's (the law) found his still. He had to spend 6 months in jail!!! 🙂
Oh I think the pictures are remarkable! So exciting and interesting! Thank you so much for sharing! What kind of fruit do you think he ferments?? I have elderberries I wish to make into a cordial….
Nancy
https://wildoakdesigns.blosgspot.com
The copper distillery is absolutely gorgeous! Yet another wonderful peek into Normandy life. Thanks Sharon.
Great post, Sharon. That machine looks like some sort of fantastic, other-world sculpture. Love it!
How fascinating! I love to read about wines and liqueurs. I so much enjoyed the pictures. Thank you!
XXXX
Ido
fascinating! thank you for sharing this magical tradition.
i have made homemade amaretto and limoncello with wonderful results, and it never lasts long enough!
smiles to you.
michele
What a beautiful machine! A grand tradition.
I'd be very surprised! This stuff is to precious 🙂
I once made elderflower wine, but nearly all the bottles exploded ! – now I just stick to the cordial, much safer 🙂
x
Plums didn't do so well here this year, you are lucky in hungaria
x
No David you are right, the rules are draconian, although I believe they have cancelled the bit about the licence not being bought but inherited.
Some alcohols are darker than others depending on the fruit. Mostly an eau de vie is perfectly transparent.
Lucky you Jess, it seems to me that you married the right chap!
xx
Actually Lorrie, around here the eau de vie is most often made with the small blue plums, but most fruits work.
xx
lavender liqueur! I've never tried that one!
That period in your history has so many great moonshine stories, but 6 months in jail sounds a bit steep
x
Hi Nancy, I've never tried elderberry cordial, but I adore elderflower cordial, use it all the time!
xx
you are most welcome Jen 🙂
x
It is very Heath-Robinson isn't it. The first time I saw one of these arriving in our tiny road, I couldn't believe it
xx
It's an interesting art Ido
xx
I know about that problem Michele 🙂
x
What a wonderful fall tradition… I bet it is the most beautiful tasting liqueur!
It really is like stepping back in time. Are they allowed to sell them on the open market? How does one go about gaining a license? Interesting!
Thank you!
xo
Andie
What a wonderful rich time of the year – you have captured the essence of the season beautifully.
"All Things French"
Well (and at the risk of repeating myself too many many many many many times?)
You write a smart, intriguing, and always interesting blog, Sharon….
No wonder you get so many equally interesting and engaged responses from equally interesting readers.
It's such a treat (for me, at least) to see how succesful your blog has become, among so many folks and so manymanymanymany blogs out-there).
That's a very sincerely-meant compliment.
I wake up at about 5 each morning, let the dogs out, and the first thing I go to (I know that morning comes earlier in France than it does here) is your blog.
I'm glad to gather (from the responses to this posting, among many others) that I'm not the only person who thinks that going to your latest posting is a great/invigorating (I mean that) way to begin each day.
Thank you,
david terry
P.S. just in case you wonder if I'm an easy critic?…..I can send you my book reviews from the 80's and 90's, when I used to review for the Washington Post, The Spectator, & The Independent (there USED to be newspapers….recall the days?). I've never been known for passing out free compliments, to say the least…..which is why I hope you don't mind my sending a free compliment your way this evening. You do have one of the three most interesting, genuinely lovely, and obviously sincere blogs that I know of. It's always good to see that many other folks have noticed that, also.
—david terry
What a seriously fun post! I would've loved to have watched that I would have LOVED to have found old bottles like that in a wine cellar in my house….IN FRANCE!!! How fun!!! We served Sangria today and I thought that was a big deal at our Open House! Funny story…and yet it's quite disturbing…a grumpy old man poured himself a glass, drank a little bit of it, asked what was in it and when he heard that alcohol was in it he literally took the the lid off of my very nice glass and chrome dispenser and proceeded to pour his half drank glass back into the Sangria! Oh my! We had to throw it all out!! I've never in all of my life seen that happen! Wonders never cease!
Sharon, it's a good thing you clue us in on what that big scary looking machine is for or I would have thought Henri and Antoine rescued an old vintage contraption from a torturer basement…:) Does Henri also make those world famous apple ciders from Normandy? It's worth putting up with the hissings and spitting for what goes into those bottles. Is Henry going to throw a liqueur tasting party afterward? Do you think he'll mind if I invite myself over? LOL.
Merci for a very lovely post.
How wonderful! That is quite an extravagant machine.
Sharon, I can't think of a thing to say except that you have one very magical life!
Next door to your home? + how blessed are you! Thanks for the photos + Enjoy! xxpeggybraswelldesign.com
Sharon
What an amazing looking machine. How mysterious! Wine hidden in a wall. Another incentive for buying property in France? Do the French often hide what they consider valuable in walls?
What a wonderful activity! I made a homemade rose liqueur in June with my rose petals, spices and brandy steeped and strained and enjoyed all winter. But it's not this complicated of a process!
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