Petit Bouilleur will become great
In a peaceful corner of the Jura, nestles Le Petit Bouilleur, a distillery like no other. No gleaming industrial machines or automated processes here, but one man, Baptiste Dayet, who has chosen to revive tradition while infusing it with his boundless creativity.
A native of Lons-le-Saunier, Baptiste launched his distillation adventure.after almost a decade in Alsace and four years in Germany, where he worked in Zalando's warehouses, it was an ecological trigger that prompted him to change course:" When you buy something on the site, it's free to return it.people know this and use it to excess. This waste showed me that this world sometimes makes no sense at all ", confides the distiller, his eyes shining with undiminished conviction.
Baptiste set up his distillery in a patiently restored 17th-century Jura coaching inn: " The planets aligned. Everything became crystal clear... or rather like a good spirit. When you're on the right track, everything becomes logical and fluid, and that's exactly what happened. "
Between tradition and modernity
At the heart of his workshop proudly sits a traditional bain-marie still, a veritable jewel inherited from Alsace: " The advantage of a bain-marie is that you can distill absolutely anything without the risk of it burning or catching," says Baptiste, affectionately caressing the patinated copper.he heats with wood, preferably reclaimed from the vineyard. next to him, a second, more modern, 500-liter, gas-fired, direct-fired still completes the installation: " Between tradition and modernity, both work perfectly. "
But don't think that technology has replaced ancestral know-how. Here, there's no need for sophisticated thermometers: the touch of copper is enough: " Distillation calls on all five senses. The eye observes the steam; the ear listens to the crackling of the wood; the hand feels the heat of the copper; the nose smells the aromas that escape, and of course, the mouth tastes the final result. "He applies this sensory, almost meditative approach religiously: " There's no music when I'm distilling, you have to pay attention to what's going on. You hear the bubbles, smell the copper heating up, see the steam appearing... It's this attention and the use of all my senses that make the quality of the work. "
A passion for plants
Baptiste turned to distillation first and foremost for his love of plants: " Their medicinal side, their olfactory and gustatory properties, their colors ..."
