In Saint-Viâtre, in Sologne, in the French region of Center-Val de Loire, Vincent Hennequart and his sister Patricia have been making caviar for the past twenty years. Today ...

France: caviar, the black gold of Sologne

Box of caviar from Patricia and Vincent Hennequart © RFI / Corinne Binesti

Text by: Corinne Binesti

6 min

In Saint-Viâtre, in Sologne, in the French region of Center-Val de Loire, Vincent Hennequart and his sister Patricia have been making caviar for the past twenty years.

Today, their high-quality production goes beyond the borders of Sologne.

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It is nicknamed the dinosaur of the rivers.

For 250 million years, the beast has wriggled in the fresh waters, lakes, subtropical, temperate or subarctic coasts of the northern hemisphere.

Elongated body, head in the shape of a shark's beak, the sturgeon, a prehistoric fish that can even reach 5 meters long, carries within it eggs that are worth gold: caviar.

Considered one of the most expensive foods in the world, this exceptional delicacy that once delighted the Russian court is still the essential figure of luxury.

Also, after years of overexploitation, fishing for wild sturgeon is now prohibited.

Today, black gold comes from farmed sturgeons and in this area France is second in the world among caviar producers after Italy.

In Sologne, land of game and hunting, a family of fish farmers, the Hennequart family, has nevertheless succeeded in acclimating the sturgeon:

“

My parents arrived here in the 1970s,”

says Vincent Hennequart.

They first had a classic polyculture

: carp, tench, roach, pike, perched.
Then, at the end of the 1980s, we wanted to try the caviar experience.

"

At the same time, brother and sister decided to resume the family business.

They acquire a small contingent of sturgeon which comes from Aquitaine.

Their fry were then introduced into their ponds in the early 1990s with two species: the Siberian sturgeon and the Oscietra sturgeon, native to the Caspian Sea.

L'Etang-Bassin by Patricia and Vincent Hennequart in Sologne.

An ecosystem adapted to grow well

Nearly one hundred hectares of ponds are available for fish which evolve by searching the ground in search of larvae, insects and small worms.

All of them coexist with other species.

Ideal conditions, close to their original environment.

But, gradually, the company will transform itself to devote itself only to the breeding of sturgeons.

An evolution

which takes place over twenty years.

The first Hennequart caviar was created in 2000. It is a success.

The fish farm now made up of eight employees now has its own breeding stock.

In all, nearly 60,000 fish inhabit the ponds.

The females are thus pampered until maturity before being fertilized.

A period of maturation that can last 8 years for the Siberian and 9 years for the Oscietra.

A duration which varies from one species to another and which sometimes can even reach 19 years.

Once fertilized, the ovarian pouch that contains the eggs is under control through regular ultrasounds.

Then follows a meticulous operation.

The objective is to separate the grains from the ovarian envelope.

The black gold is rinsed and then drained, in order to be rid of impurities:

“

The eggs are not systematically black and can range from very light brown to a slightly golden cream color,

continues the fish farmer.

Once sorted according to their firmness, size and color, the salting phase can then begin.

"

Vincent Hennequart in his basin during a catch of female sturgeon before the eggs are collected.

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Mine salt, a well-kept secret

The major step in the manufacture of caviar is its salting:

"

No fish farmer will reveal what salt he uses, or its origin, or the quantity administered,

"

says Vincent.

On the other hand, what we know is that the salts added to eggs do not come from saline, but from mines, they are the salts of mines.

Vincent and Patricia nevertheless assure that the quality of a caviar is primarily due to its aging qualities.

Because if the eggs of the sturgeon are not faultless, nothing will be recoverable even with the best of salts.

Across the northern hemisphere, there are now 24 species of sturgeon, but only a few are used to produce caviar.

Also, the great beluga (5 meters long), a sturgeon native to the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, very rare and very precious still occupies Iranian breeding ponds.

Its caviar, recognizable by its unique taste and its exceptional grain, has, according to specialists, a bewitching and incomparable sweetness in the mouth.

For now, the caviar of the Hennequart family garnishes the tables of starred chefs around the world.

A passion for fish farming that has been passed down in Sologne, in a unique setting:

“

Since childhood, I have always loved hanging out in the ponds,”

says Vincent.

I
thinks that if I had grown up elsewhere, by the sea, I would surely have opted for an activity focused on the shore.
It was my destiny,

France: caviar, the black gold of Sologne

France: caviar, the black gold of Sologne

An ecosystem adapted to grow well

Mine salt, a well-kept secret

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