Distillerie Warenghem

In 2015 the distillery helped create the Breton Whisky geographical indication, a protected name for whisky fermented, distilled and aged in Brittany.^1,3 Gilles Leizour retired in 2016; David Roussier had joined the distillery in 2009.^1,2,3 In 2019 it built 2 new warehouses that tripled the whisky it could store for ageing.^1,3,5 All the barley it used was organic from 2020.⁸ In 2023 it opened a cooperage, a cask-making workshop run by Benjamin Lefloch, in the old Lannion slaughterhouses it bought in 2022.^1,2,8 His father, the cooper Jean-Baptiste Lefloch, had made its casks from Breton oak for 15 years.^1,2,8 In 2024 it modernised its production to save more water and energy, with EU rural-development funding.^2,9

Its water came from the Rest Avel spring, pumped from 100m under the distillery.^1,8 In 2023 it mashed organic French malted barley, Scottish peated malt, Breton wheat and rye; it used malted barley for its single malts and wheat for its blends.^1,8 Its barley was malted at malt houses before it reached the distillery.⁸ Fermentation lasted between 3 and 4 days and gave a wash, the fermented beer, of 8% to 10% alcohol.⁸ The wash was distilled twice, first in a wash still and then in a smaller spirit still.^4,8 The stills were made to be heated by steam coils, unlike the direct-fired stills usual in Charente.¹ The spirit still was short and squat, which the distillery said gave a fatty, rounded spirit.