With French makers accounting for just 0.5% of the country’s vibrant whisky market, Olivier Hidier, Spiritique commercial director, makes the case for his single malt Cohobé in travel retail and beyond. Kristiane Sherry caught up with Olivier at TFWA in Cannes.
“I prepared it last week, with my own hands.” Olivier Hidier is a man who wears many hats. What he was working on, in addition to his role as commercial director at French drinks group Spiritique and preparing for the TFWA World Exhibition, was bottling Cohobé. The fledgling French single malt – produced in the Cognac region and presented in eye-catching, elegant ribbed glass – was one of only two French whiskies I spotted in Cannes. With over 120 single malt distilleries either producing, under construction or planned in the country, it seems odd that none have looked closely at the channel yet. But TRunblocked.com now has.
“The first thing I will say is that Cohobé has not come out of the blue,” Hidier tells me as we sit down on the JP-GTR stand, tasting glasses in hand. Spiritique has appointed the agency to represent its portfolio of craft brands in the channel. The whisky lines up alongside Yu Gin and Bistro Vodka among others.
“The French market is very big,” he details. “More than 200 million bottles of whisky are purchased per year in the French market, which makes it per capita a great, great market.” It’s been this way for generations, he continues. Consumers are very familiar with not just Scotch but Irish, Japanese, American and other world whiskies, too. ‘When it comes to French whiskies, it’s a very recent trend, but it’s very important. It’s like 30 years ago when the world started to know the new trend of craft breweries.” Now French distilleries are commanding attention.
“Today, the French represent only 1 million bottle sales, which means 0.5%. So can you imagine the hope for growth that we may have?” And it’s not only domestic potential. The likes of Brenne and Armorik have had international distribution for some time. These are now being followed by Rémy Cointreau’s Domaine des Hautes Glaces and Château du Breuil whisky. Yet there’s very little sign of this momentum in GTR. Does Hidier think it is too bold to try and launch a brand into GTR and his native French market simultaneously?
“It’s great because it’s a showcase,” he says on the channel. But then he pauses. And it’s an all-too-familiar refrain. “I’m hoping to travel retail to reinvent the assortment and give more opportunity to newcomers. Because I found it a bit too conservative. To have a cask finish from very well-known brands, I don’t know how that changes the offer.”
He recently read an article in a French economic newspaper that criticised the industry for falling behind. “Turnover has declined in comparison to the growth of travellers,” he summarised for me. Consumers are crying out for new and emerging categories, but retailers see stocking these brands as a risk. “And let’s say with today’s economic situation, it’s a risk that they might not be ready to take, unfortunately.”
And from this whisky writer’s perspective, the general sense of retailers lying low, to weather the storm, is a real shame too. Cohobé is just one new entrant trying to break into a market not representative of the wider world whisky category. American single malt is flying. A new generation of Japanese distillers are producing extraordinary liquid. And France has become an epicentre of craft whisky production. Consumers see all this both in their local bars and when shopping online. They need to see it in the airport, too.
Attention turns to Cohobé itself – and I’m delighted to report this is a whisky that backs up its sleek good looks with a fascinating production narrative. Hidier has partnered with a Cognac maker to craft the spirit. While he directly controls everything upstream and downstream (think: malts processed through a brewing philosophy, a razor-sharp focus on cask toast and char levels), the liquid production itself is in-line with that of Cognac. Including the direct-fired alembic stills the category is famous for. Even the different ways of heating will impact flavour.
The name ‘Cohobé’ roughly translates as the verb ‘redistil’, specifically the art of honing aroma and flavour through a second distillation run. And it’s this focus on production, rather than the cask, that drives most of the flavour. We taste the two inaugural releases, Libération and Élévation, side by side, which demonstrates the focus for the brand. “Experimentation is at the start,” Hidier confirms. Cohobé is not about relying on solely wood-driven innovation.
It all starts with French malt. Élévation, which we taste first, is made with a Pilsner malt. It has been aged in small, 250 to 350-litre lightly toasted new French oak casks. Libération, on the other hand, is made from a Munich malt, usually used for darker ales. Its new French oak casks have been heavily toasted. In addition, there’s a fascinating distillation quirk which no doubt inspires the Cohobé name. For Élévation, as with most double-distilled spirits, the unwanted spirit ‘cuts’, the heads and tails from the second distillation run, are redistilled along with the next batch in the spirit still. For Libération, the heads and tails are readded to the first distillation.
“This in order to concentrate the different elements that we think would be useful to keep,” he explains. It’s fascinating how essentially the different components of heat – the richness of the malting, the direct-fired nature of distillation and how the cuts are used, the level of toast and char in the casks – can drive so much flavour and texture difference between the two expressions.
Hidier thinks we will see more whisky makers work with Cognac producers to distil, especially as the brandy market is facing difficult times at the moment. Renting out their kit outside of Cognac’s defined distilling season goes some way to making up for dwindling sales. Would he ever want to see his own Cohobé distillery?
“It’s a great, let’s say, finality for the dream,” he muses. “Economically, it might take 20 years, so I don’t know.” If French single malt continues to blossom like this, he might need to get going on the build now.
Cohobé tasting notes:
Élévation: Very light, fragrant and automatic on the nose, with a floral honeyed note emerging over time. The palate initially feels quite tight, with cinnamon, hay and a mineralic petrichor quality. The finish is medium length, with lingering gentle spices.
Libération: A little more pronounced on the nose, with nuttiness, milk chocolate and a hint of coffee in with the gentle spices. The palate is round and rich, with toffee and orchard fruit notes. The finish is long, with oaky spices.
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