At the Officine distillery, located in Colmar, we like original experiences. To preserve its gin, the company has already tested several aging processes: in an amphora, in a barrel or even in immersion. This time, it’s at altitude, below Mont Blanc : “We climbed it to 3,613 meters above sea levelsays Baptiste Kirchhoffer, head of the distillery. We went with friends and assembled terracotta amphorae, made in Alsace by the Doller earthenware factory in Gewenheim. We put them on the balcony of the Cosmiques refuge so that they could breathe the good air of the mountain.”
The objective is to enrich the aromas and character of the spirit, he explains: “improve texture and taste harmony. We will work on micro-oxygenation, atmospheric pressures…” For the moment no scientific study shows that altitude promotes agingbut Baptiste Kirschoffer was inspired byexperiences of several restaurateurs installed on the heights: “Some had restaurant cellars at altitude, and they noticed that this made it possible to improve the product, to make it rounder, more delicious.”
The amphoras will be collected at the start of the school year in September. The distiller hopes for a surprising result: “I hope that it will bring a real plus, afterward the goal was also to discover and promote the work of all the artisans, the ceramist, the guardians of the refuge. It was a challenge with friends, a journey to dream and make people dream with this type of experience..”
The manager of this small distillery likes unusual experiences: two years ago, he already sent three test tubes of 100 milliliters of gin in the stratosphere, 32 kilometers from the earth.
