The pair of stills, with the wash still on the left, and the spirit still on the right.Īfter the first distillation, low wines are sent to the spirit still for a second distillation. Surprisingly when you’re used to Scottish distilleries, there is no spirit safe: when leaving the condensers, the distillates go through tubes fit with alcohol-meters before going to their respective vats. Distillation is made twice a day 5 days a week except for the Wednesday afternoon when the stills are cleaned. Neither still is especially tall and they both have a downwards lyne arm going to the condensers. Both stills are indirect-fired, as they use steam-heated coils inside the still to heat the liquid. The wash still has a capacity of 6000 litres, and the spirit still has a capacity of 3000 litres. Lots.ĭistillation is then made through a pair of pot stills made by a French company from Cognac, Prulho. It’s there that yeast is added, and Warenghem use both brewer’s and distiller’s yeasts, in powder form and not liquid as mostly done in Scotland. The red mill on top drops the grain through the funnel to the mashtun on the bottom right.Īfterwards, the worts (the liquid full of sugar extracted from the grist) go to the stainless steel washback, with a capacity of 6000 litres that we could not see, unfortunately. There are two batches a day, five days a week. The water comes from a hundred metres under the distillery. There, 6000 litres of water are used, in several passes, to recover the sugars from the grist. It’s then sent through a big funnel to the 4000 litre stainless steel full Lauter mash tun. The malted barley is milled by 1 to 1.2 tons per batch by going through a red mill with two sets of rollers to obtain a classic distribution of 20% husk, 70% grist and 10% flour. Malting is not done in-house but is outsourced to a Belgian malting company. 95% of the barley bought is organic, with an objective to soon buy 100% organic barley. Warenghem Distillery buys its barley (Sebastian and Prestige varieties) in France, from the French department of Creuse, in central France, from Brittany, and from the north of France. The visit of the distillery begins with the projection of a 5-minute film, before going to the still room then to one of the warehouses. The tour was conducted both in French and in English as a family of German (I think) was present and not everyone was able to speak French. The visit is quite cheap as the tour only costs 5€ including the tasting of two drams. I had booked a tour at 11 in the morning and was quite surprised how many people turned for the visit, as we were around 20 people. At this day Warenghem is the market leader of French whisky. Eleven years later, in 1998, they create their first single malt, the Armorik, appropriately named after the region. Then, in 1987, encouraged by his sales director Bernard Le Pallec, Gilles Leizour creates the first W hisky Breton, a blend called WB. Family stories continue as in 1983, Yves Leizour’s son, Gilles, creates the Melmor mead (we call that chouchen, a fermented drink made with honey and water). In 1967, Paul-Henri, third generation of Warenghems, associates with Yves Leizour, and they decide to move the distillery from the town centre to the outskirts of Lannion. In 1919, Léon’s son, Henri, took over, and the distillery rapidly expanded to the creation of liqueurs. Back then, Léon Warenghem, the founder, created the Elixir of Armorica, a blend of 35 plants, which quickly became renowned in France and in the USA. A few days ago I took a day off to visit a French whisky and spirits distillery, Warenghem Distillery, located at Lannion, in France, and one of the five distilleries located in the Brittany region.
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