Frédéric Revol, farmer-agronomist

Guillaume Rebière | 2/19/25, 12:02 PM

Isère whisky distillery Domaine des Hautes Glaces celebrates its 15th anniversary with a beautiful book written by its founder, Frédéric Revol. The credo remains the same: to produce local spirits using virtuous agricultural practices.

at 15, it's obviously not time to write a memoir. " We're still teenagers, but it's a milestone, a stage in a story in motion ", suggests Frédéric Revol, describing the fine book dedicated to Domaine des Hautes Glaces, which he founded in 2009. Whisky de montagne : la terre, la graine et le goût (ed. Terre Vivante) retraces an important part of his own life as he himself passed the milestone of turning 50. Trained as an agricultural engineer, after a first life as a consultant on the economics of natural resources, he decided one day to work the land of the Trièves mountains, on the borders of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes, to produce original spirits. Not just under any conditions: " Our proposal is to establish an organoleptic link between the finished product and the raw material, which represented a singular approach fifteen years ago. We were launching the world's first organic whisky farm, even though the whisky industry has centuries of history behind it. "

While a few other distilleries have taken this route - such as Ireland's Waterford or, in another way, Scotland's Bruichladdich - France is more open to the notion of terroir, thanks to its winegrowing heritage of identified origins, the famous appellations d'origine. Here again, we must be careful not to overuse the word: " It's a bit of a cliché, and it's not always put into practice," insists Frédéric Revol. For us, terroir goes hand in hand with respect for the natural environment and related farming practices ."Les Hautes Glaces combines organic cereal growing (to the extent of replanting old varieties) with plot selections - a singular approach in the whisky world. singular in the world of whisky -, and ageing methods adapted to the search for the terroir effect and the link with the raw material. The wood used in the casks varies according to the variety of grain used in the composition.

Aboard a cargo ship for two months, Maison Bichot barrels were studied to determine the impact of the sea on wine ageing.

Read

News & Events

In the depths of winter, at dusk, only the lights of shop windows seem able to warm up the Rue Ramponeau, in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. One of them frames a neat row of bottles, a constant feature of the eastern Paris substrate. Slender glass bottles stand out by their labels alone, in a flash of bold colors. In fact, an imperceptible difference at a glance separates them: some contain no alcohol. Benoît d'Onofrio, known as sobrelier, opened his Sobrellerie in October 2024, declining the neologism. A place to eat and drink, notably around his fermented beverage confections, which he had previously reserved for the menus of culinary residences. Moving into the small room towards the stainless steel kitchen, a series of jars stand side by side like penguins on an ice floe. A scotch announces: Squash - persimmon - chicory - rice - sweet clover. "Funny, one started fermenting faster than its neighbor, even though it's the exact same batch," observes Benoît, his childlike eyes level with the surface. Benoît starts his fermentations without mother (unlike kombucha), grains (unlike kefir) or added sugar. Only the micro-organisms present on organic fruit and vegetables are put into action, according to the variations of the season or the conditions of the day. Immediately, the smell of pumpkin seeds fills every corner of the room from the oven, just about the only source of electricity used in production. at the other end of the prism, the juicy non-alcoholic market, increasingly taken over by major brands, relies for the most part on costly industrial processes to deal with the dealcoholization of wines, beers and spirits. See this post on Instagram A publication shared by Benoît d'Onofrio (@le_sobrelier) Extraction, racking, pressing To avoid producing alcohol in his beverages, Benoît keeps a close eye on the natural sugars that can initiate this transformation. The challenge is to dilute their ardor without losing taste. Benoît crushes by hand to gently extract aromas and matter, macerates, racking, pressing and gravity-filtering. So many borrowings from the world of wine, his frame of reference. From now on, discussions with his winegrower and winemaker customers will focus on technical subtleties. "I'm confronted with similar problems, with deviances such as volatile acidity or oxidation". Nevertheless, the liquid rosé and then the second coppery one he pours into the stemmed glasses in front of him are not presented as alcohol-free wines. "I refuse to value a drink for what it doesn't have. That's the game of the de-alcoholized market, but my aim is not to make people think they're drinking wine. These beverages belong by the plate for what they are. Moreover, the sommelier is not historically bound to spirits, but to all beverages, from water to coffee." Wandering aromas on the back of the vintage bottles laid out on the table, the labels bring together a dozen or so ingredients, as if drawn at random from a hat (from muscat grapes to roasted bread to watermelon). The only purpose of detail is transparency: "Two markets are facing each other: the wine industry, which is struggling economically, and another that is banging on about alcohol, but is not obliged to detail the composition of its products, nor the quality of the raw materials,nor the bubbles.nor the quality of the raw materials, nor the artificial bubbles, nor the extravagant real sugar contents", says the sobrelier, convinced that there is room for everyone and no barbed wire. He dips his nose into the first glass, and is moved: "Three months later, the beet has taken center stage, underscoring the evolving nature of the beverages. The cuvée has a vinous density and lingers with a vegetal bitterness perfumed with thyme and citrus. next to it, the second beverage has a line of acidity running through it in a plump sip. It suggests warm spices, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom, even though none of these ingredients were used in this recipe based on apple, melon and herbs, all sourced from the same market-garden farm. Through fermentation, the elements melt aromatically or wander. "For example, the tarragon used can easily evoke licorice," he explains. "The richness of a drink is not based on alcohol or sugar. It's the fermentation that matters, its ability to create an aromatic whole, a subtle acidity, a perception of deep salinity." And to take it further than grapes or other basic botanicals, a familiar concept in well-born bottles. Benoît d'Onofrio's three recommendations for living fermented beverages: Atelier Particulier de Fermentation, Elsa Steullet 11h11 Fermentations Ô de Fleurs, Stéphanie Cohen

Read