French whisky is on a roll, with over a million bottles sold in 2024, mainly in France.
From one distillery in Brittany, which started producing in the early 1980s, there are now 138 distilleries in the country, each producing distinctive whisky.
Originally centred around the regions of Brittany, Alsace and Lorraine, whisky producers are now concentrated in the Charente region.
Cognac producers realised they could take advantage of new EU laws to use their stills for whisky outside the strictly controlled distilling season for Cognac, which usually runs from November to February.
Some are hoping that whisky will provide a cushion if current problems selling Cognac overseas, caused by both China and the United States putting tariffs and other blocks on the spirit, continue.
“We do not compete with Cognac, which is a small market in France compared to the rest of the world, but mainly with Scottish, Irish and other whiskys,” said Christian Bec, one of the founders of Twelve distillery in Laguiole (Aveyron) and president of the trade body Fédération du Whisky de France (FWF).
“Instead we battle in the very competitive market for whisky, which is a much more popular drink in France than Cognac, and slowly we have reached the stage where we register as one or two percent of the market for whisky in the country.”
Creating a signature style
There are roughly 5.3 million bottles of Cognac sold in France each year, compared to over 100 million bottles of whisky, equivalent to around 2.2 litres of whisky per person.
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Over 100 million bottles of whisky are sold in France each yearMoon Harbour Bordeaux
Although all French whiskys try to have a distinctive style, Mr Bec said a common thread was their use of small stills, compared to overseas competitors.
“In France there is the big tradition of distilling Cognac, Armagnac and fruit eau-de-vie, and they are all restricted to having small stills,” he said.
“That has continued with whisky. There are very few distilleries with the large stills that you find when people in other places start up.”
The small stills mean that each distillation requires close supervision.
“You cannot just set it up and go away and come back the next day to see how things are getting on,” he said.
“Each stage of the distilling process is carefully monitored and it gives a distinctive quality to French whisky.”
Stills can either be pot stills, as used for Cognac, or column stills.
The easy availability of barrels for maturing whisky, either new from French coopers or already aged barrels from wines, is an advantage.
Some whisky producers also have a sideline in rum, usually importing it from the Caribbean and South America and blending it in France.
The malting process
A few distilleries do their own malting – the process of soaking grain, usually barley, spreading it out in a warm spot until it germinates, and then stopping the germination with heat. Others use large malt providers, often linked with beer producers.
An example of a distillery doing its own malting is Moon Harbour in Bordeaux, which is based in a huge fuel bunker built by the Nazis for submarines based in the city.
The bunker, which has six-metre thick walls, was never used before the Germans retreated in 1944, and lay neglected until it was converted into the distillery, with its own malt house.
Moon HarbourBrian McCulloch
Seaweed from Arcachon (Gironde) is used to smoke the malt to give the whisky an individual taste.
The designation French Whisky, which is guaranteed by FWF, does not place restrictions on the type of cereal used in the whisky, which is why in the south-west some use maize (corn) like American Bourbon producers.
Along the Mediterranean coast distillers are also producing whisky using an ancient variety of wheat.
French whiskys compete at all price points. Some bottles are available for under €20, but most are in the €30 to €60 range. Exceptional bottles sell for €600 each.
Mr Bec co-founded the Twelve distillery with 11 friends and they have only just started selling their first whiskey, distilled in 2017.
They were inspired by seeing the similarities between the countryside around Laguiole and parts of the Scottish Highlands.
“We are an artisanal distillery and at the moment produce 50,000 bottles a year – but it is a serious business and we employ five people,” he said.
“Overall in France I would not be surprised to find that in 10 or 20 years time there are many more whisky distilleries.”
The French don’t wait until after a meal for their whisky
While whisky is generally regarded as a digestif, in France it is commonly served as both a digestif and aperitif.
Indeed, spirits such as whisky and rum are the third most popular type of drinks consumed as aperitifs, according to a poll by YouGov France – behind wine and beer but ahead of fruit juice and cocktails.
In total, some 64% of French people drink spirits, according to a Sowine/Dynata 2024 poll.
And while rum remains the most popular spirit, enjoyed by 79% of people, whisky has risen in popularity to 72%, four points higher than in 2023 and ahead of vodka (61%) and liqueurs (60%).
Whisky is also the spirit most frequently consumed by “regular drinkers” (27%) who drink spirits a few times a month, and also by “heavy consumers” (20%) who drink spirits once or several times a week.
