Each spring, the arborists hang the bottles in the trees, in places kept secret until this day. They enclose the emerging pears there, which will develop inside their glass shelter. These fruits will be the subject of the traditional process of making of Poire d’Olivet. They will finally allow us to distil Poire d’Olivet.
Careful selection of pears and rigor at each stage
Careful selection and rigor at each stage to extract the quintessence of the Williams pear guarantee the value and rarity of production. Each year, we distill more than 100 tonnes of hand-picked pears at maturity. This makes it possible to produce around 10,000 liters of alcohol which will fill the bottles of different formats.
At the end of August, the pears are ripened in Olivet by us. For the process to succeed, you have to be patient in order to get the right maturity. We measure the evolution of sugar levels in pears daily to identify the right time.
Then we grind the pears and put the extracted must in tanks. We then give way to the fermentation process which transforms the sugars into alcohol and captures the aromas of the Williams Pear.
Orchards of the Orléans, a terroir with a strong character
The pears used for the manufacture of Poire d’Olivet are produced in the very canton of Olivet (municipalities of Olivet, Saint-Hilaire Saint-Mesmin and Saint-Pryvé Saint-Mesmin, St Benoist-Sur-Loire) and on the banks of the Loire in the Loiret. Our production terroir is located in the heart of the orchard of France, in one of the most important agricultural regions in Europe.
Finally, we distill the pears at the Covifruit site, in the heart of the town of Olivet.
Patience, the secret of the making of Poire d’Olivet
In the end, it takes more than two months to distill a single pass still crop. Once the pears have been distilled, we store the pear alcohol at the heart of the business for at least 4 years. Again, time must do its work. In vats, brandy improves with age.
Before they can be tasted, the brandy must now be reduced just before bottling. That is to say, it must be diluted to bring its alcohol level from more than 60 ° to 50 °.
Poire d’Olivet is finally ready to be marketed!
