Le Monde

Den of CONSPIRACIES.

In the Aisne region of Champagne, six friends with a passion for spirits have taken over a former factory they've named La Conspiration. Within this 9,000-square-meter space, they refine gin and artisanal white spirits, the fruits of their experimentation.

Text Laure GASPAROTTO

Photos Mickaël VIS

 

CONSPIRING TO "GET INSPIRED TOGETHER" requires a secluded location. It was in precisely such a location that La Conspiration, a new brand of artisanal spirits, was born in 2022. Among the six partners behind this small production, it was Jérôme Lefèvre who managed to unearth it: a former ladder factory, immense and abandoned, separated from the Marne by a towpath that is almost no longer used.

On the other bank, only a few acres of silent vineyards overlook the old building built in Eiffel's time, like the bridge that separates them. In this industrial space - red brick walls, dizzying height and daylight coming from the glass roofs inserted in the iron frame of the roof - thousands of ladders were manufactured for Paris from the 19th century onwards: single, double, extension, and convertible wooden ladders, but also dog kennels, tripods, wheelbarrows...
All that equipment has now disappeared, leaving a void full of resonances, a 9,000-square-meter space open to all dreams. Only a carpentry workshop is still active next to it. You need space to create. And, when you're Parisian like the "Conspirators"—that's what they call themselves—you say yes to this luxury available here. Jérôme Lefevre is the "local" of the group, the one who grew up in Château-Thierry, the only one initiated into this little-known Champagne region to know the clues leading to such a place. The others are city dwellers with varying backgrounds, ranging from accountants to graphic designers. But what has brought them together for thirty years is "their love of drinking together, to the point of wanting to produce their own spirits ."
Hence the creation of La Conspiration, with the aim of distilling experimental spirits. The site is adjacent to a train station: it's just a five-minute walk from their hideout to the platform of Nogent-l'Artaud station, where, at the 13th minute of every hour, a train stops to arrive at Gare de l'Est in Paris an hour later. " We were charmed by the place, spacious, even if it was bigger than what we had planned ," says Nicolas Ledoux, who is somewhat the driving force behind the project. " We see it as an art gallery, in which we create, but also a place where we can later welcome the public for tastings or concerts. "

In the meantime, the distillery represents a release valve for each of them, in addition to their profession. The story of La Conspiration is based on a long-standing friendship, that of Nicolas Ledoux, a former architect, visual artist, and now graphic designer at the head of a consulting and design agency (ABM Studio), and Jérôme Lefevre, a former art critic and fan of repetitive music and metal, who became a winemaker in Champagne at the head of his own estate. Four other friends joined their reunion around fine bottles. " Our approach is resolutely organic and winemaking, otherwise the spirits of La Conspiration would be meaningless ," argues Jérôme Lefèvre, cap on his head. The artistic intention is there too.
In the immense distillery, the two brand new small copper stills are placed side by side in front of an eye drawn in black pencil with clean lines. Emblem of La Conspiration, this eye is affixed by hand using a stamp on the label of each bottle produced. For the moment, the place, animated by simple tools and traditional gestures, is filled essentially with invisible notes, powerful scents of pine, cereals, fruits, brioche, according to experiments, trials and the production of terroir gins, based on Champagne grapes and juniper, fines or malt alcohol.
That was the initial idea: to produce gin from grapes (Meunier, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir). Before producing whisky. " I use very few ingredients for gin. Everything starts with the grapes in the second harvest after the harvest. I also put apples in the gin. Every time I had a recipe idea, I talked about it. I put a real brioche in the gin, for example, because it's reminiscent of Chardonnay. That's why I needed a basic still, not a column still ," explains Jerome Lefevre, who performs two distillations. Gradually, he reduced the amount of juniper, which marked the taste, to increase the proportion of grapes. As for his malt alcohol, already marketed, it is a white alcohol that cannot be called whisky, because it has not been aged for three years. This experimental alcohol is Nicolas Ledoux's pride and joy. All of the "Conspirators'" choices boil down to focusing on the essentials: " Simplicity guides us, and that's why we don't use any additives and as little technology as possible. "

The approach is in their image, born from a discipline of space, vast, where everyone is in their place, with their area of ​​expertise, without hierarchy, without subordination, in a very horizontal manner. It is in this dream place where everything is still possible, because it is so sparsely inhabited, that sharing and community are cultivated. No large-scale production is planned: only 5,000 bottles were produced the first year, in 2022. Then it will probably be 10,000, but not much more. "We wanted to start little by little. We did our research, we took a distillation course, we formed our idea, the commitment devoured us and we got started, " summarizes Nicolas Ledoux. While one left for the Isle of Islay in Scotland, another went on the same quest to Brittany, to the Moby Dick distillery in Plogoff, and yet another went all the way to Spain to order their stills. Two models that the friends chose together, with an oriental silhouette, evoking the Arabic origins of the word "alcohol." The wait lasted six months before they arrived in Champagne, in the large nest that awaited them.

La Conspiration's spirit may be born in a rudimentary instrument, but it produces a very fine alcohol. " In reality, like our equipment, we're falsely rough, more like big sensitives ," jokes Nicolas Ledoux. Jérôme Lefèvre, at the helm of distillation, wants to make wine and spirits like he plays the guitar: quickly, with contemporary sounds, like the minimalist music of Steve Reich. He distills in the same way, with as few tools as possible. Around him, the space echoes his work. Inside the distillery, in a corner, stands a small wooden cabin, which serves as a lab, living room, and office, a corner where it's a little warmer so his fingers remain agile as he stamps and packs the bottles one after the other.

The first bottles began shipping this year. Distribution benefits from Jérôme Lefèvre's champagne sales network. Exports are already booming, with orders from Japan, South Korea, Italy, and soon the United States. " This enthusiasm is quite moving, and we're proud to be exporting our region in this way. Our terroir gins, which depend on the grapes we grow and select, prove they're a compelling alternative to spiced gins ," enthuses Nicolas Ledoux. The friends' bold move is rewarded by this early but spontaneous recognition. Their rebellious desire, initially reflected in their austere location on the banks of the Marne, is sublimated in the precision and finesse of their spirits. As Jérôme Lefèvre sums up: “ Alcohol is an art that accompanies digression and enchantment, and we are happy to perpetuate this heritage in our own way .”