MICHEL COUVREUR FRENCH WHISKY
Michel Couvreur
Burgundy, France
Michel Couvreur had a very personal, and truly revolutionary vision of what whisky should be: more than terroir, more than the distiller’s touch, it was the maturing in oak casks that truly helped the grain spirit become whisky. From 1978 on, having settled in the French region of Burgundy, he decided to make it his life’s work and to dedicate his research to a process which he once compared to cross-fertilisation.
With his believe that 90% of the quality of a whisky comes from the cask, and only 10% of the distillation process, Michel originally took whisky distilled in Scotland to Burgundy in France for aging in sherry oak casks. Today, the avant garde house blends carefully, choosing unusual materials such as amphora, Jura Vin Jaune casks, to exploit wine lees to the best possible effect.
They track each cask individually, and handle them slowly and precisely using gravity only. This allows an offer of exceptional diversity across products, all the while maintaining a distinctive aromatic identity, based on balance.
Each of the wide range of whiskies are hand-corked, hand-waxed and hand-labelled. From the youngest spirits such as the Clearach, to blended and 12-year-old single malts, to some very rare single casks like the iconic Very Sherried, matured for over 25 years.