Élixir4 Distillery at the Château-monastery of La Corroirie

Some of the plants worked with in the distillery first belong to the everyday history of La Corroirie. This rose is one of the most intimate examples.

Jeff de Mareuil propagated it from an old André Eve rose planted for Maine beside the church. Over the years it became a familiar presence within the estate before entering the distillery’s botanical research.

Its scent is particularly distinctive. It differs clearly from the profiles associated with Burgundy roses, Damask rose or the perfumery tradition of Grasse. What matters here is not an abstract idea of “rose”, but one particular plant, growing in one particular place.

How far the flower has opened, the hour at which it is picked and the time between harvesting and preparation already alter what can be perceived. The plant therefore brings its own rhythm into the work of the distillery.

The distillery belongs to the continuing life of La Corroirie, without turning the monument into a backdrop. It occupies the former service buildings at the entrance to the Monks’ Courtyard, within an ensemble where the church, gardens, moat and old buildings remain lived in and used.

Nothing has been reconstructed for effect. Distillation has simply found a place within this long history as a contemporary activity based on observing plants, transforming them and giving them the time needed to reveal what they can become.

The gestures are different from those of the Carthusians of Le Liget, yet a relationship remains between the place, its plants and what people make from them.

Angelica grows particularly well at La Corroirie. Its presence on the estate makes it possible to follow the plant over time, from its growth in the ground to the experiments carried out in the distillery.

A single plant offers several distinct materials. Root, stem, leaf, flower and seed do not carry the same scents or the same balance. Working with each of them means reconsidering maceration times, proportions and sometimes the way the plant is distilled.

The great umbels are only one visible moment in a much longer cycle. The plant is observed before it is transformed: maturity, scent, season and the part being harvested all matter as much as the process that follows.

This direct observation is central to Élixir4. The recipe does not always come before the plant; it can also emerge from what the plant actually gives in a particular year, season or harvest.

Harvesting already belongs to the work of distillation. A rose picked in the morning, a flower that has opened a little further, or a few additional hours before preparation do not produce exactly the same material.

After picking comes the separation of the petals. They are removed by hand and prepared before maceration or distillation. By then, their scent has already begun to change.

Freshness, maturity and harvesting conditions matter as much as the stages that follow. Differences that are almost imperceptible in the garden can become much clearer once the plant material has been transformed.

Once the flowers have been prepared, the petals are gathered together before entering the distillery. The volume of fresh plant material gives a very tangible sense of the passage from a rose still growing on the bush to something ready for maceration or distillation.

The bucket of petals is therefore the immediate continuation of the previous gesture: the complete flower has become a prepared material, still fresh and still closely tied to the moment at which it was harvested.

This closeness between plant, hand and still places the research within the rhythm of the estate. Some trials can be repeated from one year to the next; others remain inseparable from a particular flowering or harvest.

Once harvested and prepared, the plants enter another kind of time. In the distillery, rose, angelica and honey sit beside one another as materials to observe, compare and bring into balance.

Each has a different presence. Rose carries a distinctive floral expression; angelica brings greater botanical depth; honey introduces another density and length.

Their meeting is not a simple addition of ingredients. Proportions, maceration times, distillation temperature and rest gradually shift the balance.

It is within this space, between fresh material and transformation, that Élixir4♥ gradually takes shape.

Élixir4♥ grew out of the research carried out at La Corroirie around plants, fragrance and distillation. The wheat base, honey and botanicals must find a common balance without one erasing the others.

Angelica and rose have a particular place in the work today. Their expression depends on the harvest, the maceration, the distillation and the time allowed for rest. The aim is not to eliminate every variation, but to recognise the balance that feels right.

Each bottle is numbered and therefore keeps the trace of one particular moment in the life of the distillery.

Hemp belonged to earlier compositions and experiments, but it is no longer part of the current composition of Élixir4♥.

Discover Élixir4 on the distillery website

The distillery does not progress through a sequence of permanently fixed recipes. Some paths require several trials, several harvests or several seasons before they find their place.

A scent may seem balanced as it leaves the still and become too dominant after a few days of rest. A plant may reveal itself beautifully in a maceration and lose its finesse once distilled. The work then has to begin again: shifting an equilibrium, reducing a proportion or sometimes abandoning a path altogether.

This uncertainty belongs to the work at La Corroirie. Not every experiment is intended to become a product. Some simply help to understand a plant, a material or a process more clearly.

Bottles, hydrosols and trials therefore retain the traces of precise moments: a harvest, a distillation, a cut, a period of rest and sometimes an equilibrium that will never return in exactly the same way.