Quentin Le Cléac’h - Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie, Gard, France

Quentin Le Cléac’h became transfixed with the alchemy of spirit-making after reading Mattieu Frécon’s book "L’Alambic" in the late 2010’s. Obsessed, he went to work with Mattieu and eventually took over his operation in 2014.

For a few years, Quentin distilled with a friend under L’Atelier du Bouilleur and in 2017 they parted ways. Quentin landed in Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie near Uzés in the Gard, where he now works closely with natural wine producers and organic growers to source fruit, herbs, and aromatic plants, all farmed without systemic chemicals, to make an array of grape-based spirits (eau de vie). Everything undergoes two distillations: the first to produce an intermediate alcohol between 30% and 40% (brouillis) and the second to remove the heads and tails (unwanted alcohols at the beginning and the end of the distillation process). From here, there are many possibilities.

Quentin can age the spirits in different vessels or distil again and macerate with different plants, herbs, spices and fruit. The resulting spirits are extremely complex, very pure and uniquely Quentin’s. We are super happy to share this completely different expression of grapes through our portfolio.

Iris

Iris (juniper, apple and wild mountain pepper) is triple-distilled from the grapes of Sébastien Chatillon (Ad Vinum). Even though it has a juniper base, it cannot be called ‘gin’. Le Cleac’h cannot reach the alcohol levels required to call it ‘gin’ when distilling from grape marc or wine (rather than corn, wheat, barley, rye, etc.) using his homemade artisanal set-up.

The final spirit ends up being around 40% with a flavour profile mirroring that of ‘real’ gin. Le Cleac’h’s spirits are extremely unique as he uses the natural sugars of grapes that are farmed without systemic chemicals from local vignerons in the Gard rather than harder spirits that could have come from anywhere.

Iris is best served over ice with a dry tonic and a slice of apple.

50cl. 40% vol.

Blasco

Blasco is also a 'gin' made in collaboration with Sébastien Chatillon (Ad Vinum). In the 3rd distillation the spirit is macerated with juniper, kumquat, limequat, orange, thyme and Argentinian verbena provided Damien Blasco in Roussillon.

Blasco is a light a floral gin for warmer months shared with loved ones.

50cl. 42% vol.