Story: Moonshine, a new French Infatuation

At a certain point in a European vacation the medieval villages all start to look the same. The tiny town of Hérisson France, located in the center of France in the oldest region called Auvergne, has all the usual tourist stops: castle, check, remnants of old wall, check, cobblestone streets, check, cathedral, check...distillery?? That sign caught my attention but my husband Rich and I didn’t have time to investigate. We were already late for a reservation at the Auberge la Quecoule (Tel: 04 70 06 88 16 - Fax: 04 70 06 69 28) farmhouse where the owner and his wife prepare all organic dishes using food from their land.

Perched on the hearth of a mudwall fireplace sipping a glass of robust red wine and nibbling on a plate of smoked trout caught from their lake, I asked the proprietor, Monsieur Ludovic Bénard, about the curious distillery sign. He told us the moonshine shop just opened a few months ago and was already so popular with locals that they lined up on weekends to buy the whiskey. This was a Monday so the tasting room was closed. Our faces appeared so crestfallen that Monsieur Bénard immediately phoned his neighbor, Oliver Perrier, owner of the distillery, who agreed to come over and see us. In the small towns of France it appears everyone knows their neighbors and their home telephone numbers.

With his chapeau, country gentleman’s suit of cordouroy jacket, bulbous nose and easy smile, M. Perrier was straight out of central casting.During a lunch of salmon mousse, duck with asparagus and potato au gratin, he told us his story.

Oliver grew up in Hérisson and 30 years ago he and a group of friends formed a traveling actor troupe. During their journeys across Europe a musician from North Carolina joined up with them. The newcomer shared his moonshine with the actors and eventually, after much coaxing, his recipe. When Oliver retired from the theater, he returned to his hometown, population 721, and decided that homemade hooch could fund his retirement.

As I plunged my spoon into the pistachio ice cream and a chocolate cupcake with a hot, melted center, (a dessert recognizing the Auvergne area’s 80+ dormant volcanoes), Perrier declared that he would open his store, just for us. When the locals saw him turning his skeleton key in the door, several asked him what was going on? “The Americans are here!” he exclaimed as they examined us curiously. Next door his girlfriend, whom he also called to open her shop, sells liquor she creates from the bourbon and fruit grown on Perrier’s farm.

You can barely turn around in the Hedgehog store, it’s so tiny, but a rounded bar with two stools allows you to sample his brew. The distillery’s best sellers are tiny pharmacy screw top bottles that Perrier jokingly calls “pee-pee” jars. Running a close second with customers are larger bottles in the shape of a voluptuous woman.

To call this moonshine is really an injustice. Yes, he uses a copper handmade still and corn from his own fields, but Perrier ages the whiskey for three years in casks made from oak trees in the nearby region of Troncais, renowned for providing the most sought-after wood in the world for Cognac barrels. The brew’s water is also from the same well royalty used in the 6th century A.D.

Perrier produces 1,000 bottles of the nectar a year, proudly proclaiming, “I’m the smallest distiller in Europe.” Hedgehog is so successful that it had to establish a quota system: only the first fifteen customers of the day are served! On his wall he displays an old W.C. Fields joke: "One should always carry a little bottle of moonshine in case of snakebites. And one should always carry a small snake." Now for the important part after that build up-how did it taste? Smooth and soothing like a fine brandy and as far from a holler’s unlicensed swill in the southern hinterlands as France. (La Distillerie de Monsieur Balthazar, 8, place de la République, Hérisson (Allier), 04-70-06-85-57.)

As for the drink’s unusual name, Hedgehog, it is the American word for Herisson, also the town’s name. Legend has it that in the 11th century, a member of the Royal family was hunting when his favorite dog came across a hedgehog, that had instinctively rolled up to protect itself, exposing it’s sharp quills. The Knight decided this was a sign to build a fortress, protecting the town like a hedgehog, so he named the town Herisson and a castle called Vallée de l’Aumance, which is currently under renovation. The brick wall remnants of the chateau sit high above the town with views of the river and stucco cottages with brightly painted doors.

After touring the Castle, walk downtown through the round entrance of “Hell Street,” so named because enemies who visited the town were supposedly killed there before they even made it to the fortress.

Herisson is a popular because its small town atmosphere never changes, but there are a few new activities. A permanent exhibit of antique pottery is now on display at rue Gambetta (Gambetta street). “Two elderly women, Madams Racailleux and Bocher look after the place but they do not have a telephone there,” says Vanessa Michy, with the Auvergne government tourism board. (www.auvergne-tourisme.info or us.franceguide.com). “You just have to knock on the door and hope they are open. That’s how it is in small towns in France. And don’t even think about a website!” she laughs. Michy says the other reason many are now visiting Herisson is a popular new flea market, L’intemporel. (Call 011-33-4 70 06 84 56 for more information).

The village is quiet in the winter because it’s a vacation spot for many people who have homes passed down to them through the generations. Many only open their cottages in the summer during the annual classical music festival along the riverbanks, no doubt capping the evening off with Hedgehog brandy.