While the group had initially wanted to produce whisky (they promise it’s coming in a few years), Menaud has focused on vodka, gin and beer: drinks that have a gentle quality in common—the pride of being produced from their native land.

Genuinely local!

“Our approach from the outset was to use local products in our concoctions,” added Martin. “To develop our spirits, we reached an agreement with the Harvey family of Isle-aux-Coudres. In Pierre Perreault’s film Pour la suite du monde, Louis Harvey worked the fields, and now they belong to his grandsons. It’s where we grow our wheat, rye and barley.”

The group, with its forward-looking ideas, was seduced by the salt water and limestone soil (from a meteorite!) of Isle-aux-Coudres, which make it ideal for farming. “We thought, ‘there’s going to be something special about this grain’ and we were right.”

Pride from grain to bottle