Whisky Around the World: French Whisky

We kick off our annual content series, Whisky Around the World with a peek at French Whisky with category expert Daniel Cooney of Heavenly Spirits.

French Whisky—It’s Getting Serious!

There is a new spirit of revolution brewing in France, but it has more to do with the making of great whisky than an uprising of a starving peasant class. France, the country known for consuming more whisky per-capita than any other, entered the high stakes game of producing it themselves only recently. That’s rather late, at least compared to their 700+ year history of distilling other spirits. Thirty years ago, you could count all the whisky producers in France on one finger. Today there are at least 120 French distillers at some stage of serious whisky production, each with their own story, and dreams of making the next great whisky to share with the world.

This rising tide of whisky production is evident all over the country. From the shores of Brittany in the North to the Burgundy hills in the East, and deep into the Charentes Cognac region in the southwest, the French Whisky revolution is gradually taking shape.

In May of this year, my partner and wife, Christine and I had the pleasure of visiting five of these newish distilleries along with our good friend, and whisky writer, Robin Robinson. Robin had just finished visiting five additional whisky distillers in the North of France. What we learned overall from these combined visits, is that the wide-spread movement to make French whisky is both incredibly impressive and historically significant. If the French have as much success with grain spirits as they have had with grape ones, the world is in for quite a treat in the not-too-distant future.

Full disclosure, Christine and I are owners of Heavenly Spirits Imports, which already represents three brands of French whisky, including the original “Oui dram” itself, Armorik Single Malt. Our quest to find out more about this ongoing development in the French spirits industry, was motivated by our genuine interest in both whisky and France. As experienced marketers of French whisky over the past 10 years in the whisky-saturated United States, we are accustomed to hearing the response,

“I didn’t even know the French made whisky…” whenever presenting our products at tasting events across the country…

The already-established whisky-producing countries of the world are well known, America, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and more recently Japan, yes, but the next great whisky-producing country vying to be added to that list is yet to be determined. There seems to be some serious competition out there, and the leading contenders might surprise you: India, Australia, and you guessed it, France, seem to all be in the running. Each of these three countries have distilleries that have been quietly producing some of the best whiskies you might never have heard of, including some of the places we visited in France. While we did tour one distillery in Bordeaux (Moon Harbor), most of our time was spent in the region of Les Charentes, where we visited Fontagard, Spiritique, BASTILLE 1789, and Saint Palais.

While India and Australia certainly have very good creden5als of their own to make great whisky, I believe the French are stacked with a great number of outstanding reasons as well, most importantly, access to all the essen5al ingredients and all the other elements needed to make outstanding whisky. These include home-grown barley, pure spring water, oak forests for supplying the produc5on of aging barrels, a long and deep history of dis5lling savoir faire, and most importantly… a great passion for enjoying a good dram on a regular basis (the apéri5f hour).

During our quest to learn more about this sudden French interest in making whisky, the ques5on of “Why hadn’t anyone in France aJempted it sooner?” naturally needed to be raised. When posing this ques5on to the producers we interviewed, we received some interes5ng and revelatory responses. I credit Robin for geNng to the very heart of it. As a writer, teacher, and former actor, Robin Robinson is an intrepid interviewer with a depth of knowledge in the spirits industry. His astute line of ques5oning was invaluable in flushing out the true roots of this French whisky-making quagmire. The results of his inquiry when interviewing Edouard Daucourt (another one of our suppliers), led to details of the origin story behind BASTILLE 1789 whisky, which we had never really been exposed to before, and it made a load of sense.

Ultimately, the fact that a historically-Cognac producing family decided to make a commitment to produce whisky at that 5me seemed a brave and daring choice. The reasons we learned had a lot to do with a changing poli5cal and cultural 5de and challenging economic 5mes. It was also quite simply, a temp5ng way for a new genera5on of the family (with an Irish-born mother) to make their mark, in what felt like a crea5ve and meaningful way. I expect Mr. Robinson will eloquently expound on this part of the story in future wri5ng.
Building a new spirit category takes time.

As with all things related to their patrimony, the French do nothing by halves. More than one of these budding French whisky giants has referred to something called “a thirty-year plan.” Ten years into the projection for some of the early pioneers, it seems a realistic expectation of time to hone and perfect such a high-minded and ambitious endeavor. To their credit, they have already organized and formed two official geographic indications (IGP), one for Breton and another for Alsatian whiskies respectively. This will help to define and protect those unique styles of French whisky as they continue to develop. They have also formed a Fédération du Whisky de France. Founded in 2016, it is an organization formed to, in their own words “make whisky from France, the whisky par excellence.”

But the French whisky revolution goes beyond what happens in the mash tuns and aging warehouses. It symbolizes a revitalization of local agro-industry and culture. Armorik has worked with a local company to transform the abandoned local abattoir into a traditional tonnellerie or cooperage, for example. It is the only one in Brittany and they specialize in making barrels from Breton oak. French barley, long sourced by Scotch makers to make their whiskies, gains a new meaning when used in homegrown whiskies like BASTILLE 1789. Cognac distillers, who by law are only allowed to run their stills for Cognac production six months out of the year, are adapting to a new way of running their businesses and farms. All these changes represent a circular economy of “Made in France,” from grain to glass, that mimics a kind of hyper-local shift we have started to see around the world, even in the US.

The combination of these factors is what just might signify the imminent rise of French whisky’s reputation around the world. To which every whisky enthusiast can raise a glass and toast, “Vive la Revolution!”