Vedrenne

Vedrenne is a Burgundian liqueur house founded in 1923 that has gathered several older French names under one roof, so this page is really four ranges at once.

The first is the cremes and fruit liqueurs, the core business. Creme de Cassis is the one Burgundy is known for, but the range runs deep into fruit you rarely see done properly, including peche de vigne, mirabelle, prunelle, griotte and myrtille, alongside the bar staples of fruit liqueurs, blue and orange curacao, maraschino, cacao and amaretto.

The second is the herbal side. Verveine du Velay is the verbena liqueur of Le Puy en Velay, here in the gold bottling at 40 per cent and a fiercer green at 55 per cent. Salers is the gentian aperitif of Cantal, further west in the Auvergne, and Maurin Quina the quinine and cherry aperitif made at Le Puy en Velay, the same town as the Verveine.

Third is the aperitif and mistelle corner: Ratafia de Bourgogne, Guignolet Kirsch, Le Birlou and the Terres Rouges fig and walnut bottlings. Fourth is the zero alcohol syrup range in litre bottles, including orgeat, elderflower, passionfruit and lavender. Delivered across Australia.

History

Vedrenne was founded in 1923 at Nuits Saint Georges, in the middle of the Cote de Nuits, and the location is not incidental. Blackcurrants were planted in Burgundy as a vineyard companion crop, and cassis growers used the Noir de Bourgogne variety, small and intensely aromatic. A creme de cassis is not a flavoured spirit but a maceration: fruit steeped in neutral alcohol for weeks, pressed, then sweetened heavily. European law reserves the word creme for liqueurs carrying at least 250 grams of sugar per litre, and sets creme de cassis higher again at 400 grams, which is why it pours thick and why it survives dilution in a glass of wine.

That dilution became a national habit thanks to Felix Kir, a canon and post war mayor of Dijon, who served blanc cassis at civic receptions using local Aligote. The drink took his name and rescued a grape variety nobody wanted.

The other names on this page came from elsewhere. Verveine du Velay was created in 1859 at Le Puy en Velay from verbena and a long list of other plants, and is still made in green and yellow. Maurin Quina comes from Le Puy en Velay too, and is best known for the green devil poster Leonetto Cappiello drew for it in 1906. Salers is the outlier, distilled in Cantal since 1885 from the roots of wild yellow gentian, dug by hand at altitude from plants that take years to build a usable root. Together they cover most of the French liqueurs and aperitifs tradition.

How to drink it

A Kir is one part cassis to four or five parts cold dry white, and Aligote is the traditional choice because its acidity holds up. Use less cassis than you think. A Kir Royale swaps in sparkling wine, a Kir Communard uses red. Any of the cremes work the same way, and peche de vigne or framboise make a better Royale than cassis does.

The herbal bottles want different handling. Verveine Verte at 55 per cent is served very cold in a small glass or long over tonic. Salers is an aperitif first: 40ml over ice with tonic and a slice of lemon, bitter and clean, and it also stands in for a lighter amaro in a Negroni variation. Maurin Quina is good simply over ice with soda.

For cocktails, dose fruit liqueurs at 10 to 20ml, not 30. They carry a lot of sugar and will flatten a drink fast. Orgeat is the backbone of a Mai Tai and improves any whisky sour; the passionfruit syrup does the same job without alcohol, which matters when you are building a zero proof list.

Storage is the part people get wrong. Low alcohol, high sugar liqueurs oxidise and darken. Keep opened cremes and the syrups in the fridge and use them within three to six months. Higher strength bottles like Verveine Verte keep for years at room temperature.