While the sale of the "perfect collection" of whiskeys is going to kick off this weekend, Eric Cordelle, director of a distillery, is the guest of Europe 1. He explains how he is launched, near the Vercors plateau, in the design of its own organic spirit, and distilled at low temperature to obtain, a little like in cooking, different aromas.

INTERVIEW

If France is not considered a land of whiskey, it is still possible not only to produce it, but also to innovate in the field. While the auction of the "perfect collection" of this spirit, the largest in history, is organized from this weekend, Europe 1 has invited the director of the Vercors distillery, Eric Cordelle. If he is not yet selling some of his bottles around the million dollars, the estimated price of the greatest vintages of the collection, he can still boast of having managed to "put his paw "in the design of his whiskey.

Vacuum distillation

The secret of this former engineer in the bank who has been converted for ten years is that he distills his beverage thanks to a still of his design which allows the process to be done under vacuum. "I told myself that to launch a whiskey, something different was needed, that's where I had the idea of ​​distillation at low temperature," he explains to the microphone of Europe 1. Thanks to the lack of air, Eric Cordelle can therefore vary the pressure in the still and thus choose the temperature at which the liquid will boil.

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"A bit like cooking on low heat, it allows to have different aromas", he summarizes. With his wife Hélène, the couple therefore embarks on production: ten years of work so that the first bottles of "Sequoia", from the name of the tree that grows in the courtyard of the distillery, are born. Because in addition to building the still, it is the whole installation that Eric Cordelle built with his hands, plumbing and electricity included. "It took me two years," he says.

An organic spring water whiskey

Last specificity of the whiskey "made in Vercors" is that it is made from spring water. "We settled just below the plateau [of Vercors], where we found a great source. It was very important for us". In the first organic department, Drôme, Eric Cordelle and his wife therefore bring "their little stone to the building". And perhaps one day a bottle of "Sequoia" will also end up, along with thousands of other whiskeys, in a "perfect collection" estimated at around 9.5 million euros.