Maison Noilly-Prat is a must in Marseillan. It must be said that his Vermouth is known and also recognized around the world! Americans are even fond of it to concoct their cocktails based on Gin or Vodka. But Noilly-Prat is above all a family story that dates from the beginning of the 19th century with inheritances, marriages and blends. Benefiting from the privileged climate of Marseillan and the Mediterranean spray which brings their share of salty notes which are released from the water to fly away before joining and impregnating the wood of the barrels and giving them that je ne sais quoi reminiscent of aging in a caravel, the Marseillannais Vermouth has succeeded in standing out among all the others and becoming a benchmark. If the brand now belongs to the Bacardi Group, it continues to be faithful to the artisanal manufacturing process of the family, the precious soul of Noilly-Prat that an angel, one day, delicately deposited on the small port of Marseillan …
The Noilly-Prat : real Thunderbolts !
They are imposing, monstrous and at the same time magnificent and sumptuous these casks on display in the Reception Hall and in the interior cellar. With a capacity of 40,200 liters for the largest of them, they alone symbolize the family Saga and a success that all of Occitania can be proud of. Pascal, our guide, invites us to go behind the scenes of this family house, from the production to the tasting which will be an opportunity for you to discover 4 vintages: the Original Dry, the Extra Dry, the inimitable Ambré and the Red. It was in 1813 that the first Vermouth Noilly-Prat was born, this very special aperitif wine whose bitter taste comes from subtle blends. To be officially recognized as Vermouth, it must contain, according to the specifications, 75% wine minimum, a wine fortified with alcohol and flavored with plants and spices. Its sugar content can vary, as well as its color and its degree of alcohol necessarily between 14.5 ° and 22 °, without omitting a percentage of Artemisia absinthium – also called grand wormwood – since “Vermouth" in German translates by Absinthe.
Mistelle and a ball of gum…
One of the secrets of Vermouth Noilly-Prat is its liqueur wine called mistelle. It is a grape juice used here as a natural sugar agent for blending. “We don’t want tannins at Noilly-Prat, or woody aromas," Pascal tells us. We prefer to work from used and neutral barrels so as to imbue them with our own signature with a maceration of plants and spices combined with the climatic conditions of Marseillan and its sea winds. In Vermoutherie, he continues, we make our blends of wines, mistelles, plants and spices. Our white wines are selected for their aromatic profile close to Picpoul and Clairette, two dry wines on the palate that age separately for 12 months, as is the family tradition.
The meaning of the visit then invites us to enter containers gathering a multitude of valuable information, such as the family tree which continues today with the Bacardi Group, but the Noilly-Prat know-how or even the origin of all the plants and spices used in the manufacturing process. We also discover what makes the character of Vermouth de Marseillan, a complex blend of some twenty different plants and spices, the three main ones being: coriander, chamomile and gentian root to give bitterness. No wonder the founder of Maison Noilly-Prat, Joseph Noilly, was a grocer by trade, in the sense of a spice trader. He was also, no coincidence, an herbalist. The first recipe dates from 1813. The second, which dates from 1956, is that of Red Vermouth which is not made from red wines, but from white wines, only darker because of the bark of Canina, already roasted cocoa beans, saffron, nutmeg or cloves. In 1986, Ambré appeared, the phenomenon of the range, because it was unlike any other Vermouth with its perfect balance between sweetness and bitterness and the presence of quite surprising plants such as vanilla, Moroccan rosebud, cinnamon or lavender, all obtained from naturally dried products as required by the Noilly-Prat tradition. The extra-Dry, on the other hand, was designed at the request of the US market. It’s a more neutral and less potent vermouth that serves as a base for very dry cocktails, like Gin and Vodka.
The House, as we know it today, was not founded until 1855, when Louis Noilly, son of Joseph, joined forces with his son-in-law Claude Prat. One year later, the Noilly-Prat brand was registered. Since 1990, Noilly-Prat has been part of the Bacardi Group, at the origin of the famous Italian (but very industrial) Vermouth, the Martini. The visit ends with an appreciable visit to the shop where it is difficult to resist the temptation to leave without a souvenir of Marseillan to enjoy with friends …
Maison Noilly-Prat is located near the Port Marseillan real estate complex, a winegrower’s Resort under construction in the town of Marseillan, which will overlook the Thau lagoon. Port Marseillan already offers villas and apartments for sale from € 275,000 up to € 1.6 million, as well as waterfront villas from € 3.6 million.