WHISKY
ET
EAU DE VIE
the odyssée is one of the two major ancient greek epic poems attributed to homer.
its two most pertinent characteristics are:
that it tells the story of a quasi endless wandering journey.
that this journey is marked by many changes of fortune.
time plays the most important part in the making of our spirits.
we live in an era where time became a commodity. how promptly a task can potentially be accomplished is often synonymous with profitability aND the quality of a service. if that is true in most aspects of modern society, it does not apply to everything, and definitely not to fermentation.
things are meant to be happening at a certain pace since man first crushed grapes and we are convinced that a rushed fermentation would affect not only the flavor and the smell of our products but the quality of the “ivresse” that comes with the consumption of our spirits. the great kintaro hattori said soon after he founded his house of seiko: “don’t hurry don’t stop…” “it is better to do something continuously, perpetually and untiringly than to hustle and fail.”
perpetual change and continuity.
we also have learned not only to accept change as inevitable but to welcome it as a blessing. the unique spirit in which we work and the principles we have set for ourselves does not allow for uniformisation. to the contrary it imposes that every batch differs from one another. change or difference is not a result but an ontological condition that is attached to the way we do things. our very spirit, the soul of odyssée can only be kept alive through perpetual motion.
in the spirit of achieving the highest standards possible, odyssée always puts production principles before personalities and financial interest.
the principles:
1. the quality of our products comes first. odyssée believes that only an honest product can generate continuity.
2. we only use the highest quality products one can find on the market and source locally whenever possible.
3. we welcome indigenous bacterias to be part of our fermentation process. the presence of these lactic bacterias alongside with the natural yeast that we use generates a wider complexity of aromatic scent and flavors.
4. in order to guarantee a wider range of aroma to be captured during distillation, we distill in manually controlled copper pots. this process allows for the alcohol to heat slowly and therefore to calmly progress through the different parts of the still.
5. we dilute “a drop of water at a time” with the highest quality water one could find on the market.
6. we age our whisky in oak barrels that were previously used to make exceptional wine.
7. we accept change as inevitable.
all our whisky and eau de vie are released in small batches of bottles coming from a single barrel. we do not blend. all batches are unique and witness the particularity and the spirit of each cask.
odyssée is a self supported industrious company.