The Good Life France Magazine




The Good Life France Magazine brings you the best of France - inspirational and exclusive features, fabulous photos, mouth-watering recipes, tips, guides, ideas and much more...


Published by the award winning team at The Good Life France

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2 years ago

Summer 2022

Discover captivating Corsica, the island of beauty and glitzy, cinematic Cannes. Explore Antibes, less well known than it's neighbours Nice and Cannes, it's incredibly pretty and authentic, and the Camargue in the south of France where wild white horses and pink flamingoes roam. Come with us to arty Arles, historic Agincourt and Aisne in Picardy - the ancient cradle of France. Meet artisan gin makers in Cognac, discover the prune route of France, fabulous recipes, guides, gorgeous photos, the best tours, what's new in France and delicious recipes - and more...

moved to Cognac in 2008

moved to Cognac in 2008 to do up a manor house. Ian set up a soup stall in the local market and when Miko offered to swap gin for soup, Ian was so impressed he joined Miko’s newly formed company Audemus Spirits. The taste of Pink Pepper Gin has wowed all who taste it and the company has taken off but, says Ian, production is still done in the front room of Miko’s house. Ian explains how Audemus Spirits have become one of the best gin-makers in France: The Audemus Distillery is a little atypical for the Cognac region, where we usually encounter giant copper beasts which can churn out hundreds of litres of their spirit a day. In fact, there are only a handful of distilleries around the globe that create the way we do. We operate a vacuum distillery out of Miko’s living room. Every botanical we distil is done individually, with its own specific method. The maceration time, botanical ratio, alcohol ABV, distillation time, pressure and temperature will all depend on the botanical’s character. If we’re looking for delicate flavours, everything will be done with a gentle touch. If we’re looking for spicier and stronger notes, we will increase the intensity at which we extract flavour. Once we have distilled all the botanicals which go into the gin – we blend them together in their specific ratios with a French neutral grain spirit and filter it lightly before bottling; giving the different elements time to rest before every stage of production. Our form of distilling is at the cross-roads between distillation, perfumery and chemistry – and is an entirely empirical operation. There are no textbooks that give us direction. Everything is born from experimentation and a love for the work we do. We don’t just make gin, we make all sorts of products – liqueurs, bitters, hybrid spirits that don’t fit into any category and so on. Our methodology changes depending on what we’re making. Being in the heart of the ‘Spirits Valley‘ in Cognac, we have numerous resources at our fingertips, from coopers to traditional distilleries. While we work with innovative and new technologies to produce drinks that are representative of our epoch, we maintain absolute respect for the time, passion and effort needed to create beautiful things. Each new batch of Pink Pepper Gin is dedicated to someone we love, the people that have helped us on our journey. But we also make different gins – Umami Gin is another member in our permanent range (or 66 | The Good Life France

family) of products. And we make limited edition gins (Hoppy, Dive Bar, Old Ma’s) and bespoke gins for other people (Anne Sophie Pic Gin for example). We only work with fresh, dried botanicals – nothing artificial. Pink Pepper Gin has 9 botanicals: Pink Peppercorns and Cinnamon from Madagascar, Italian Juniper, Cardamom from Guatamala, Honey from the Cognac region, Tonka Bean from Brazil and Vanilla from Sāo Tomé. Plus two secret ingredients. We work closely with all our suppliers and ensure that each botanical used is grown and harvested sustainably. For the vanilla for example we have partnered with a small co-operative on the tiny island of São Tomé. Miko visited and invested in the co-op who are trying to re-establish the vanilla production following years of neglect. We receive a small percentage of each crop as a return on our investment. The Good Life France | 67