Distillation

At Distillerie Tessendier, the single malts are distilled twice in Charentais copper stills, used for their high ability to conduct heat combined with malleability.



Using this material enables it to benefit from an all-copper and very long coil (65.6 yards for a 25 hL boiler, i.e. 660 gallons) which offers a long contact time and progressive condensation resulting in a delicate and elegant distillate.

The first heating is done in the 100 hL – 2,641 gallons – boiler . The second heating, or “Bonne chauffe” is done in 25 hL boilers.



Guillaume, distiller, explains the choices to be made when choosing the “bonne chauffe”: “At the end of the heart, sometimes the distillate that flowed was qualitative but lacked linearity. So I made the choice to cut to have a more focused, finer heart, to keep the vivacity. The cellar master’s desire to have a product that retains its power has thus led me to produce a very concentrated heart.”