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GAILLAC & THE TARNContinued…DISTILLERIE ARTISANALE, MAISON LAURENT CAZOTTES, Villeneuve sur Vere – OrganicThese are “haute de vies” from a distillerie artisanale. Made without sulphur, artificial yeasts or enzymes, LaurentCazottes lets nature do the talking. It is all about picking the fruits when they have reached optimal maturity – that is tosay (in the case of pears) when they have dropped to the ground. Cazottes sources the best pears either from the organicorchards of friends or from his own biodynamic ones. The pears are then allowed to ripen further in cagettes in the warmautumn wind. From 3-4 degrees of potential alcohol, they attain 8-9 degrees. 12 tonnes of pears realise a mere 2,000bottles. The work is a labour of love: the cores, the pips and the stems are removed to preserve the maximum aromaticflavour of the pears. The juice is fermented for six weeks in tank to transform the sugars into alcohol. All this confers anunctuosity and richness to the final eau de vie. La Reine-Claude Dorée is a very ancient variety and no stranger to jammakers,distillers and liqueur-makers. In order to bring out the flavour of the plums Cazottes effects a passerillage onracks. To obtain freshness and purity the stalks and stones of the fruit are manually eliminated leaving nothing else otherthan the flesh and the skin. A long, slow fermentation using only the indigenous yeasts intensifies the perfumes while thegentle, precise distillation amplifies the aromas further. The Goutte de Mauzac Rosé truly embodies the spirit, as it were,of this autochthonous variety. Meticulous work in the vineyard ensures ripe and healthy grapes (debudding in spring,green harvest in summer, manual triage). Light pressing and a natural fermentation leaves the residual sugar to distilinto an eau de vie of delicious suppleness. For the liqueur de Prunelle Cazottes again attends to the details that make thedifference. The sloe bushes form a habitat to shelter fauna, meanwhile the fruits are left until December to passerillé andthe first frost announce the harvest. They are allowed to dry further on shelves until the colour of the skins changes fromyellow to red. Then they are manually de-stoned and split one-by-one and then undergo six month maceration in sugarsyrup before distillation.2010 APERITIF AU NOIX VERTES – 50cl2009 APERITIF DU FLEURS DE SUREAU – 50 cl2009 LIQUEUR DE COING SAUVAGE – 50cl2011 LIQUEUR DE TOMATE – 50cl2009 LIQUEUR DE PRUNELLE – 50 cl2008 LIQUEUR DE FOLLE NOIRE – 50 cl2010 LIQUEURS DE GUIGNES ET GUINS – 50cl2008 GOUTTE DE POIRE WILLIAMS PASSERILLE – 50cl2007 GOUTTE DE MAUZAC ROSE – 50cl2009 GOUTTE DE REINE-CLAUDE DOREE – 50clLAURENT CAZOTTES, Villeneuve sur Vere – OrganicLaurent Cazottes, artisan distiller extra-ordinaire, who furnishes us with a variety of amazing eaux-de-vies, liqueurs andaperitifs, also makes a pair of wines from indigenous Gaillacoise grape varieties. Adèle is from Mauzac Rose the grape thatbrought you Plageoles Mauzac Nature; it has an almost pinkish tint, is typically floral yet quite vinous with bruised apple, dryhoney, herbs and spice. The Rackham comes from Folle Noire (sometimes known as Jurançon Noir) which is a cross ofMalbec and Folle Blanche. Actually, this grape variety has a host of other delicious-sounding names including Dame Noire,Enrageat, Fola Belcha, Nanot and Sans-Pareil. Laurent’s version purple full-flavoured wine is reminiscent of Gamay or evenNégrette, with its bold cherry fruit and violet overtones.Both wines are certified organic. This is their inaugural vintage.Adèle Blanc sec refers to Jacques Tardi’s famous comic strip published in Sud-Ouest magazine about an Indiana Jones-styleeheroine battling various monsters and dinosaurs in Paris between the wars. Doubtless she would quaff this wine with poachedPterodactyl eggs. Rackham le Rouge is a piratical character from Herge’s Tin Tin adventures. Would pair well with CaptainHaddock, Omar Ben Salaad or anything meaty that Cutts the Butcher can carve.2011 VIN DE FRANCE “ADELE” BLANC SEC W2011 VIN DE FRANCE “RACKHAM” ROUGE R- 28 -