The alchemist from Forcalquier

From the lavender to the absinthe

Today, it is Jeannot the fatalist. "Needs to resign itself, the strong alcohol is not fashionable any more. Who will make us working, tomorrow ?" No more future for the home distillers ; these "privileged" since Napoleon are still 300 000 in France , all of them have already arranged their still in the cupboard. "At the beginning of the other century, every village had its distiller, says Jeannot. In the region, we are only two in activity."

The eye riveted on his manometers to verify pressure in pipes, Jeannot slides some logs in the hearth to activate the distillation of the marc of grape which one of his customers confided to him. He repeats gestures learnt by his grandfather Jean-Baptiste and by Désiré, his father. "Jean-Baptiste had the passion of the vapor. He was a farmer, excepted from November till December when he became a distiller. A blessed time…" The hybrid grapes from local vineyards gave 20 000 liters of brandy by season.

As everybody made brandy, the grandfather chose to diversify : the industry of the flavor, rapidly expanding with Grasse, needed essences. For Jean-Baptiste, it will be the lavender. "One picked 400 kg of lavender on the mountain of Lure in July. Some absinthe also… "

The still : a brass and iron monument

It is an agricultural building as so many others hung on the side of the citadel of Forcalquier. A forgotten barn all year long and which "revives again" in autumn. A white smoke escapes then from the small fireplace from six am till night. Who could believe that it is in this decayed and buried under the cobwebs place that the best alcohols from Distilleries and Domains of Provence are born ?

Behind the big door, under a thick fog saturated in water appears the still, a brass and iron monument from another age. But for hundred fifty years, this "locomotive" is adjusted as a beautiful mechanics...

With a height perched voice and a wrinkled with the mistral face, Jeannot Augier, 72 years old, is the pilot of the machine. The sad eye and the absent smile hide a big mockery and a busy life.

The green fairy

Mythical "green fairy" which made mad and was forbidden in 1914. This year, on Forcalquier's place, the villagers fired a cart loaded with absinthe to protest against this insult in the tradition. A real fire of Midsummer Day ! Today, everything splits. "The source dried up, go through the mountain, the lavender also almost disappeared."

Distillers from father to son, Augier immortalized domestic history with Désiré. In the 1950's, the father of Jeannot worked for 800 customers. There were there all the small producers who possessed a vineyard, an orchard and a farmyard. And all who came beyond the mountain with their too ripe fruits, raspberry, melon, pear and naturally génépi. But quite as the agriculture which does not feed any more its man, the distillery begins its decline. One does not talk about alcohol excepted about wine which becomes consumer goods on this soil with vineyard.

In 2008, in Forcalquier, five farmers remain on a total of 4 500 inhabitants.

Saved by Distilleries and Domains of Provence

In every vintage, it is surprise, as when one looks for truffles, other Jeannot's passion. Everything depends on the quality of the fruit and the care which one brings to its maturation, to its crop and to its fermentation. "A still, it is simple" Jeannot explains. "A cauldron, a serpentine, vapor and it is done. But to good boil, it is necessary to be in ones parents'feet."

Twenty years ago, Distilleries and Domains of Provence, which knew how to impose their Henri Bardouin craft pastis beside the big multinationals of the aniseed alcohol, were out of boiler. Jeannot gains then an excellent customer.

Distilleries, emblem of a local business which innovates not to die, commercialize also other alcohols of which Rinquinquin, aperitif elaborated from sheets of peach tree, which acquired a reputation which exceeds the fortifications of Forcalquier. And Jeannot is still in the furnace. "We also make Marc de Provence from syrah and grenache and poire Williams. Without them, it is sure, I would have closed for a long time."

A past time

Faithful to his autumnal meeting for more than half a century, Jeannot knows that he will be the last Augier who transforms the glucose of fruits into brandy. His son, Pierre, is fire chief… "My still, I like it. It is a domestic inheritance. It is quite copper and does not know wear. I retired, but it is going to continue to warm. I passed on my know-how, don't worry about that…"

Still brave to tip over the cauldron and decant the invaluable elixir to its tins, Jeannot notes scrupulously liters produced on his register and keeps on the table a bottle "for the guest ". He admits not to love the alcohol, or then liqueurs, "but today, one drinks some whiskey, not liqueur." And to regret the time when his customers cut for him the sausage until the locomotive stopped blowing… Another time, my good sir…

They still boil

The home distiller is the one that boils its harvest. A privilege established by Napoleon who was ceaselessly questioned to fight against the alcoholism in the French campaigns. If alcohol consumption migrated in cities, distillers can distil every year for their personal consumption ten liters of alcohol in 50 ° without releasing from tax.

Beyond, a distiller can commercialize its production of alcohol if he pays 7,5 euros by liter from the first sold bottle. Threatened with extinction by the State for years, finance law for 2008 put back the date of the end of home distillers' privilege on January 1st, 2013. These ones will so be able to realize the distillation of the products of their harvest, for their personal or domestic consumption, franchised of rights until December 31st, 2012.

Alcohol abuse can seriously damage your health. Drink with moderation.