If drinks can be classed as food, Noilly Prat is one of the Hérault’s ultimate slow foods. This dry, golden vermouth takes years and years years to make, and is based on one of the Languedoc’s most closely guarded secrets (almost up there with all that stuff from the Crusades and Cathars).
Noilly Prat - as old as the hills (and the walls)
Noilly Prat has been produced at the sleepy fishing port of Marseillan for almost 200 years (date for your diary: the big anniversary is in 2013).
It’s used as a drink, essential in a dry martini, and its spicy flavours also mean it’s widely used by French restaurants to make classic fish sauces.
The rituals involved in its production have a wonderful mixture of mystery and happenstance about them.
Folk knowledgeOver the centuries, winemakers realised that storing wine in a barrel alters its characteristics. When you transport it by sailing ship over long distances in the Mediterranean, exposed like that for months to the harsh sun and the salty sea air, something magical happens: the wine in the barrels becomes darker and the flavours are intensified.
In steps herbalist Joseph Noilly. He decides to harness this folk knowledge and mimic the natural processes, and comes up with France’s first vermouth in 1813. Then in 1855, his son Louis Noilly and son-in-law Claudius Prat (from England) set up the company that eventually turns into Noilly Prat, and they move the business to Marseillan.
Essentially, though, it’s the story of a remarkable businesswoman, at a time in the 19th century when very few women were in charge.
After Claudius and Louis died, Anne Rosine Prat – Louis’ daughter and Claudius’s widow - took over. She ran the company for nearly 40 years, and turned Noilly Prat into an upmarket international brand.
How they make Noilly PratProduction starts when the fruity white wine from two local grapes – Picpoul de Pinet and Clairette – are aged separately in massive casks inside the storerooms. The wine stays there for eight months, maturing and absorbing the flavour of the oak.
The Noilly Prat barrels in Marseillan
Then they are transferred to smaller barrels and taken outside to an enclosure, l’enclos. They are left out for a year, thousands of barrels, row after row, in the scorching sun, exposed to the wind from the sea and low winter temperature and water sprinklers.
During this time they age slowly to the rhythm of the seasons. About 6% to 8% by volume is lost to evaporation, and this is called la part des anges, “the angels’ share” (in Ireland we have a slightly less charming name for this, “the burglars from Blanchardstown”). The alcohol levels go down, but the flavours intensify.
The Room of SecretsFinally the barrels are transferred to the “Room of Secrets”. They are blended together and left to macerate for three weeks, when the maître de chai adds bitter orange peel and the secret ingredients, a recipe of 20 aromatic herbs and spices from around the world.
These are rumoured to include camomile, cloves, coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg, something called centaury, and quinine. A small quantity of Mistelle (grape juice and alcohol) is also added, along with a dash of fruit essence to accentuate the flavour.
Then after pressing and filtration, the liquid rests for a further six months in oak barrels before bottling.
You can see all this (apart from what goes into the top secret recipe) at Noilly Prat’s cellars in Marseillan from March to November. There’s a small charge and the tour guide explains the whole process.
You end up getting a taste of each of the main variety of Noilly Prat and the two lesser-known ones that they produce (see below). The company’s pretty little website has details of visiting times.
Noilly Prat as an apéro“Noilly Prat is a necessary component of a dry martini. Without it you can make a side car, a gimlet, a white lady, or a gin and bitters, but you cannot make a dry martini cocktail.”
- W Somerset Maugham, 1951
As an apertif, serve Noilly Prat over whole ice and a lemon slice. Once you’ve opened a bottle, they say you should keep it refrigerated and consume within four to six weeks.
Noilly Prat trivia- Noilly Prat was the name given by the poet T. S. Eliot to his cat
- The Noilly Prat brand was acquired by Martini & Rossi in 1971
- It’s now a part of the Bacardi-Martini family of brands
- Red Noilly Prat is a special variant made for export (mainly to the US). You can’t buy it in France, except in the Noilly Prat shop in Marseillan
- Same with Ambre Noilly Prat (guess the colour) – it can only be bought from the shop in Marseillan.
- Before you ask, it’s pronounced “PraTTT” with a hard “t”. The charming chef Rick Stein taught us that in one of his TV series
- A young Gustave Eiffel designed a beautiful spiral staircase for Noilly Prat’s HQ in Marseillan
- He was so captivated by the project that he integrated the intitials of Noilly Prat & Cie (NPC) into the design, inadvertendly creating the Noilly Prat logo/icon
- Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was born in Dijon. The name Eiffel was adopted by his father from his birthplace in the German Eifel region, because the French couldn’t pronounce his original surname, Bönickhausen
- Exactly. So the centre of Paris nearly ended up with the Bönickhausen Tower
“Enjoying Noilly Prat as an aperitif slows down the pace of modern life – you can imagine its briny notes of olive and salt echoing the scent of the Mediterranean ocean, and its complex spices that of the neighboring Languedocian cuisine.”
- Noilly Prat “Global Brand Ambassador” Ludovic Miazga
- Terroir and Picpoul de Pinet
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