Alexe 2003 0,5L

Burgundy is home to one of the world's most specialized whiskey experts: Michel Couvreur. This family business is known as one of the great in the world of malt whisky; their vision is revolutionary rather than traditional. Michel Couvreur looked far beyond the region of origin or the expertise of the distiller in question. For the originally Belgian Couvreur, cask aging was the essence of great whisky. In 1978 he settled in Burgundy, the village of Bouze lès Beaune. The word Bouze has to do with water and for good reason: the hills are saturated with water, making the cellars very cool and damp.

Michel Couvreur brings two worlds together in a form of 'cross-pollination'. On the one hand, the young, fiery distillates from selected distillers from Scotland. On the other hand, the very old, wine-soaked barrels from different wine regions. For example, Maison Michel Couvreur maintains close contacts with top houses such as Niepoort (Oporto) and Toro Albalá (Montilla Moriles). They also work with old Sherry casks and casks in which Vin Jaune (Jura) previously matured. These casks, often many decades old, are transported to Burgundy to be filled with clear, very young Scotch Malt Whiskey. The filling of these precious old barrels is done purely with 'fall pressure'. So it is gravity that moves the Malts and not a pump. Then they are 'forgotten' to ripen in peace for a long time.

This partly takes place in the cellar, located under and next to the house, with a unique temperature and humidity. The maturation cellar opposite the house was completed in 2019. From where the distribution will be arranged.

Throughout the year, people are busy tracking down and buying very old barrels that are transported with great care from the wine estates to Burgundy. Couvreur also experiments with alternative forms of ripening, for example in terracotta amphorae. There are different maturation times, 12 years, 25 years and much longer.

When the moment of bottling comes, it is filled directly from the barrel, without filtering. The distinctive, square, hand-corked bottles are finally hand-lacquered and labeled before being sold. It goes without saying that this is not a 'mass company' but a qualitative niche producer.

Michel Couvreur passed away in 2013, but his business is continued by his wife Martha, his daughter Alexandra, her husband Cyril Deschamps and the brilliant cellar master Jean-Arnaud Frantzen, who propagate the Couvreur philosophy.

These beautiful and unique Malts are now finally for sale in the Netherlands, until recently you only saw them in the top gastronomy of France and at a few top specialists in the retail trade.