- A micro-distillery was opened in January in Strasbourg, in the Neuhof district. Four friends got started. They will soon market their production.
- "As lovers of spirits and organic, we wanted to create something else," says a member of the quartet, Arnaud Henry. The "Strasbourg distillery" also uses a maximum of local products.
- Three spirits have so far been distilled: gin, vodka, and malt spirit.
Several hundred bottles are lined up on a shelf, labeled and ready to go. The boxes were delivered earlier this week. In a few days, the gin from the "Strasbourg Distillery" will leave its production premises, in the Neuhof district.
A new stage for the small structure, launched last January by almost four childhood friends. “Nicolas [Kretz] was with me in kindergarten, we met Julien [Wackenheim] in college and they have known my wife Chloé for ten years. It is a family affair, ”smiles Arnaud Henry, before returning to the origins of the project.
Organic and local
"In fact, we realized that there was no transparency on the ingredients in the spirits," he rewinds. It's the only alcohol where you don't know what you have in your glass! We, as lovers of these products and organic, wanted to create something else. »Like gin, vodka and soon the spirit of malt, all certified organic and made with the maximum of local products.
“For example, it is the Green Mountain Garden which provides us with the aromas of gin. For the malt spirit, we collaborated with Bendorf [a micro-brewery in Strasbourg] which produced the brew, details Chloé Henry. The labels were designed by a fairly well-known tattoo artist here, AnK von Annika, and they are printed in the Haut-Rhin. Our whole approach sometimes complicates things, but we want to. "
To get there, it was especially necessary to distill. Nicolas Kretz took care of it. "I had already done it younger with my father and my grandfather, especially the mirabelle plum and the quetsche", recalls the interested party, who followed "a training of 148 hours at the international center of spirits", near of Cognac. "Because producing gnole is fine, but there I had to specialize," he explains.
The 374 liters of bottled gin, the 118 liters of ready vodka and the spirit of malt in the aging phase in a 220 liter oak barrel, this employee of the public service will soon return to his profession. Like his three friends, who never stopped working. “Maybe in the future, we will have to pay someone if things go well, but we have no vocation to become Pernod Ricard. We launch out unpretentious, "sums up Arnaud Henry, who specializes in marketing and communication.
An open crowdfunding campaign
The quartet nevertheless invested “roughly 15,000 euros” in the business and benefited from loans from structures that help entrepreneurs. In mid-June, they also opened a crowdfunding campaign on Ulule. The goal ? Finance their new still, which will replace the one it has so far been loaned to them.
The objective of 5,000 euros has already been reached. "The best would be to get 20,000 euros, it would allow us to add lots of options on the still," hopes Nicolas Kretz, already surprised by the returns. “We are also asked for a lot of bottles but we reserve the first ones for our contributors. For the others, the partners are looking for distributors. The online sale will also be available on the distillery website from July 15. It will take 42 euros for 50 cl of gin, against 33 euros for vodka (to be consumed in moderation of course).
" We will see what it gives. We don't limit ourselves in our creations, concludes Arnaud Henry. There has not been a distillery in Strasbourg for twenty-seven years, so one has the impression of regenerating an activity. A bit like micro-breweries twenty years ago… ”
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