Maison Drouin was founded in 1960 and was one of the earliest houses to age its Calvados in port and sherry casks. At a time when “Café-Calva” (coffee served with Calvados) seemed to be the only outlet for the category, Christian Drouin invested in creating cask-aged premium products. His son Guillaume Drouin joined the distillery in 2004 and in 2014 took over from his father and grandfather. An expert in distillation and ageing, he used local ingredients to develop the category, betting on the power of innovation. Such innovation included, for example, a unique gin produced from apples, which became a huge hit with independent spirits retailers and leading bartenders. More recently, he was behind the creation of the Expérimental range, which features Calvados aged in casks previously used for the Jamaican rum Hampden, Hine Cognac, and Mars’ Japanese single malts. La Maison du Whisky has been Drouin’s official distributor since 2009 but had already successfully stocked Christian Drouin’s Pomme Prisonnière in the 1980s. A strong relationship binds our two family companies that is further reinforced by our physical proximity. The Calvados featured this year is 65 years old, the same age as La Maison du Whisky. It is one of the oldest brandies still available from Christian Drouin’s cellars.

The Nusbaumer distillery in Steige, which was founded in 1947, off ers a wide range of fruit and plant-based brandies and liqueurs. It has a unique connection with La Maison du Whisky, who has stocked some of its Nusbaumer products since the 1970s. The relationship does not end there, however, as the distillery was also bought in 2019 by Nicolas Lombard, a former member of the Maison du Whisky team! A few months after taking over the business, he created a range of aquavit and the gin Jos’Berri, which immediately brought a burst of modernity to Nusbaumer in line with the times with reneging on its outstanding heritage. The two expressions bottled exclusively for La Maison du Whisky are some of Nicolas Lombard’s favourite products. One is a William’s Pear, the other a unique kirsch. The traditional recipe for kirsch uses only small black mountain cherries. In this bottling, the distilled fruits are from an even rarer variety, the Chatel Morel cherry, and the spirit aged for three years in demijohns.

In 2021, however, we discovered the G-Bridge company, whose work involves promoting the leading shochu houses. G-Bridge is also an independent bottler and bottles high-quality shochu from the best producers under its own brand 3S. Shochu can be produced from rice, sweet potato or barley, and is fermented twice using a fungus called koji, before being distilled and aged in tanks, clay pots or, less frequently, in barrels. The amber colour and rich aromatic palette of cask-aged shochu gives it a certain resemblance with single malts. For our catalogue, we have selected two products that represent the expertise of this up-and-coming category from two distilleries: Ohishi 2009, which is produced from rice and aged in Mizunara casks, and Yanagita Aokage 2019, which is produced from barley.

The rules recommended in the protocol include: prohibition of filtration, the use of synthetic products on the wines and additives during fermentation, as well as the obligation to respect the vine’s natural cycles and systematic use of native yeasts.

La Maison du Whisky began distributing these Triple A wines in France in 2012. At the time, natural wine was still in its early days and the range failed to find its target market.

Over the years, however, more and more consumers became aware of the issues linked to traceability and authenticity and La Maison du Whisky found a growing number of experts and enthusiasts among its ranks. This led us to stock new selections, still in partnership with Velier, including a range of wines named Nuovo Paradisetto. The name comes from the nickname Luca Gargano gave his head office in Genoa, “the new little paradise”, in reference to the former offices located in Villa Paradisetto. The two expressions that inaugurate the range are like those of the Triple A movement and will please both newcomers and experts alike: a Frioul white wine produced from five grape varieties, and a red wine from Liguria, produced mainly from the Alicante grape.