Our Distillery
A young woman is behind this new distillery…
Inès Fortemps de Loneux, from the Belgian Ardenne, grew up near Bastogne before moving to Liège to study Management and Finance. Once graduated, she decides to work in Madrid. The city’s culture and the variety of gins in the bars and restaurants showed her a brand new world. She then started to spend her free time doing research about the plants as well as the different ways of extracting their aromas to, at first, create her own natural home-made cosmetics.
In time, her passion for distillation increased. She decided to move back to her native region, on the other side of the border, in Luxembourg. This way, she could keep developing her new interests and pursue her career in Finance. The idea of creating her own distillery was taking seed in her mind and with the support of her family and friends, she took the next step.
Inès took a course done by a master distiller in France to deepen her knowledge and perfect her skills while taking the necessary steps to found a distillery on her own name.
Once she achieved those goals and after making a successful first high-quality product, the Distillerie Fortemps de Loneux’s history could begin…
Distillerie Fortemps de Loneux
There are still very few craft distilleries in our regions, however we decided to open our own distillery instead of delegating the production process, so we could offer handcrafted products. It was essential for us to maintain control on the entire production process to keep a flawless quality on our products. It begins with the choice of the still, a meticulous selection of suppliers, raw material and finally the quality of the water used. Each distillation is tasted and reworked until it meets our high quality standards.
The Distillerie Fortemps de Loneux is ideally located in Differdange in the southern part of Luxembourg, at the crossing of the Belgian, French and Luxembourgish borders. Differdange is the country’s third largest city, anchored in the Chiers valley which is a tributary of the Meuse. It is also part of the Land of the Red Rocks (called the Minett by Luxembourgers). The location owes its name to the bright red color of the ore that was at the heart of the success of the iron and steel industry in Luxembourg during the industrial era. Differdange has a rich industrial history, which managed to innovate with the changing times as well as becoming a dynamic and cultural city.
Our distillery wants to be part of Differdange’s values. We want to put the spotlight on unique distillation craft while making good use of advanced technologies developed by still producers, in order to offer products that combine tradition and innovation.
Gin distillation
« Gin » comes from the Latin “Juniperus”, meaning juniper berry. These edible berries come from the juniper, a prickly shrub 4 to 15 meters tall and they are the main ingredient of the gin, being what gives it that special taste. Dozens or even hundreds of other ingredients can be added to the gin that can create unique gins, if chosen carefully.
Gin is most usually made from a neutral grain alcohol that contains more than 85% of alcohol (mix of cereals like corn, barley and rye) or from molasses. High quality gins are made through distillation. To do so, 45% diluted neutral alcohol is poured in a still and is brought to the boil. The alcohol is fused with the berries aromas and spices when rising in the column of the still. The first alcohols to evaporate are called the “heads”, then come the “heart” (or “spirit”) and at last, the “tails”. It is up to the distiller’s technique to select the best part of the obtained distillate.
The heads and the tails of distillation, less pure, are recycled and distilled again, while the heart is diluted, filtered and bottled. Only the heart is used to produce high quality gin, up to 80-85%, to which the gin degree is lowered to obtain a 37.5% alcohol at least (EU regulations) by adding pure demineralised water. The gin obtained this way is ready for use and bottling.
Even if distillation is a traditional method that improved throughout the years, the numerous laws regulating it discourage anyone who would like to start their own distillery. Many brands delegate the production to master distillers to focus on selling the product. The distillation process is important for the Distillerie Fortemps de Loneux as we distil ourselves our own products to guarantee a flawless quality to our clients. Moreover, each distillation is unique, and so are all of our bottles.