The Distelane cellar, Beaune

Our story

Distelane was started in 1972 by a sommelier who had spent ten years at a Beaune restaurant and grown tired of the way the spirits trolley was treated as an afterthought. He took a long lease on a vaulted limestone cellar under a courtyard in the old town and began buying single casks from small distilleries he knew personally — a Speyside malt distillery a friend ran, a Martinique agricole estate his uncle imported, a Cognac house whose owner he had met at a tasting in Lyon.

Fifty-three years later, the cellar is still at the same address. We have grown from one casual buyer to fourteen partner distilleries across four regions, and from one wooden rack to a working library of about three hundred casks at any one time. But the principle has not changed: we taste every cask before we bottle, we bottle as little as possible from each one, and we ship every bottle with a tasting card so the spirit is met with attention.

The regions we work with

We work with four spirit-making regions, each chosen for what the place gives the spirit. Speyside and the Highlands of Scotland for the single malts: soft water from granite hills, copper pot stills, ex-bourbon and sherry casks. Three small distilleries in Aberlour, Carron and the eastern Highlands.

Martinique and Guadeloupe for the rhums: AOC Martinique cane pressed within six hours of cutting; tropical ageing in ex-bourbon casks under a generous Caribbean angel's share. Cognac and Pays d'Auge for the brandies and Calvados: Ugni Blanc grapes from the Petite and Grande Champagne crus, and cider apples from a single Norman farm. And Oaxaca for the mezcal — a fifth-generation maestro mezcalero who stone-roasts agave in a conical earth pit and distils twice in a clay pot still.

How to taste a dram

Pour a small measure — twenty millilitres is enough — into a tulip-bowled glass that concentrates the nose. Hold it at the base, not the bowl, so your hand does not warm the spirit. Look at the colour against a white background. Bring the glass to your nose, mouth slightly open, and breathe in gently — three short sniffs are better than one long inhale.

Take a small first sip and roll it slowly across the tongue. The first sip resets the palate; the second sip is the one that tells the truth. For a cask-strength bottle, a small drop of water from a tasting pipette opens the nose remarkably — five millilitres is usually enough. Take notes if you want to remember the bottle; do not take notes if you want to enjoy it.

Storing your bottles

Spirits do not improve in the bottle the way wine improves in cask. Once bottled, the spirit is stable — but oxygen will gradually dull an opened bottle. Store closed bottles upright in a cool, dark place; the cork should not be in long contact with the spirit, unlike a wine cork.

An opened bottle keeps its character for six months to a year. Beyond that, oxidation begins to soften the nose and round the edges. If you drink slowly, transfer to a smaller bottle as the level drops, or fit a vacuum stopper. Avoid direct sunlight — UV breaks down aromatic compounds within months.

The cellar

The cellar is run today by the founder's daughter and the cellar master, with three colleagues working the bottling line, the tasting room and the shipping bench. We are deliberately small. We could be larger and we have chosen not to be.