Well, that's alright then

[muninnhuginn]

According to this article in Le Monde

En quantité raisonnable, le whisky est recommandé par l'Académie.

Well, if the Academy says it's OK, who are we to argue? It's an entirely worthwhile article, even if we can't flap off to Paris to visit the exhibitions in question. There's something about the French language that works poetical wonders, especially with food and drink:

Au sortir de l'alambic, le whisky est incolore.

See, pure alchemy.

Informative too. We'd already clocked the existence of a Welsh distillery and intend to acquire some of its distillations (despite our qualms about the Welsh). But French ones? Corsican?

La Bretagne possède deux marques régionales : Armorik et W.B. (pour Whisky Breton). Altore, depuis un an, est un whisky corse.

With a bit of googling we've discovered the Corsican stuff:

Depuis l'ete 2003 ce whisky pur malt est distillé en Ecosse spécialement pour Altore.L'alcool est affiné en corse dans des fûts de chêne ayant contenue du vin muscat, ce qui lui donne une saveur particulièrement fruitée.

So that's less of an attraction. However, the other two seem genuine.

Comments

[armb.livejournal.com]

I'm reading Raw Spirit (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0099460270/202-6106130-9322251) at the moment. At one point he says that some Japanese whiskies are actually rather good. I think the Welsh distillery gets a mention in passing too.
I wonder how the Altore would differ if the muscat barrels were shipped to Scotland instead of the other way around.

[muninnhuginn]

I need to borrow Raw Spirit from the Aged P sometime: I bought it for him for last Xmas/birthday (cannot remember which).

I can't imagine shipping the barrels to Scotland would make a ha'p'orth of difference--let's be honest the Scottish sherry makers somehow manage to supply the entire scotch whisky industry with barrels. Not. It annoyed me just a tad that the article in Le Monde failed to mention, or maybe recognise, the fact that this was not a complete distilling operation in the way that the Breton ones seem to be. I expect better of Le Monde.

[armb.livejournal.com]

How is the Aged P? You can borrow my copy soon if you want and that's easier. (There's a bit about bourbon barrels being used in part because bourbon is required by law to use new barrels, a protectionist measure to help American coopers. I think it's unlikely the climate the barrels are in makes a difference assuming similar storage facilities, but it could, and it would be interesting to be able to compare.)

[muninnhuginn]

Thanks for the offer. I'm thinking of waiting till we next stay with him: three tottering piles of unread books beside the bed rather indicates that acquiring more would be a bad idea.

Aged P is busy as ever, i.e. growing a beard for a part in a play and about to go off on a walking holiday somewhere Mediterranean.