DISTILLERY CRAFTMANSHIP
The distillery: six generations of mastery and gesture
Founded in 1830, our distillery perpetuates a savoir-faire passed down through six generations.
Here, on the edge of Charente-Maritime, between Cognac and Bordeaux, copper stills continue to speak the language of fire and time — that of slow, patient, precise distillation.
To be a distiller is about far more than distilling.
It is about choosing, macerating, distilling, ageing, blending — and starting again, until the right balance is achieved.
This gesture, refined through decades of spirit-making, Archibald has opened to a new territory: non-alcoholic creation.
With the same standards, the same nobility of ingredients, and the same pursuit of aromatic complexity.
Another way of distilling
At Archibald, distillation is not a technique — it is a language, a playground, the exploration of an infinite world.
One that reveals the nobility of botanicals, captures their precise nuance, and extracts the soul of a root or the freshness of a zest.
Each creation begins with an idea of taste.
Our organic and wild plants — gentian from Auvergne, juniper berries, fresh ginger — are selected for their intensity and aromatic typicity.
They are chosen alongside our foragers and partner producers, who share the same respect for the right gesture and for living matter.
They are then macerated and slowly distilled in our custom-built still dedicated to Archibald — named Joe.
There, steam, copper, and time work together to extract the finest fractions.
What follows is a precise play of blending and balance: macerates, distillates, fair-trade cane sugar, and local spring water — the same used by the finest Cognac Houses — before an “old-style” carbonation that gives birth to bubbles of silky finesse.
No quinine, no artifices: only the quintessence of botanicals and the hand of the distiller.
It takes 30 days to create a bottle of Archibald:
3 days to select the botanicals,
21 days to distil,
6 days to blend and bottle.
Thus were born two alcohol-free icons, revisited with uncompromising standards:
the Sipping Tonic, known as the Original, crafted from gentian and wild juniper berries from Auvergne — Archibald’s herbaceous and root-driven signature —
and the Sipping Ginger Beer, an alliance of the spicy yet delicate notes of fresh ginger and a subtle touch of wild gentian.
Two classics rethought according to a single principle:
to make alcohol-free a territory of complexity, audacity, precision, and emotion.
Remaining off the beaten path, for creations truly Hors du Commun.
La Réserve — exploration taken to its extreme
La Réserve Archibald is a territory of free expression, where our Master Distiller explores new writings of non-alcoholic creation.
Each cuvée is born from an intuition, from savoir-faire pushed to its limits, and from a single quest: to create the emotion of a great spirit — without alcohol.
Rare, limited, and numbered, these exceptional cuvées embody Archibald’s ambition:
to push the boundaries of what is possible, to experiment with new materials and new gestures, sometimes in collaboration, always with precision and a sense of detail.
Here, luxury lies in freedom —
the freedom to explore, to surprise, to reach the wow effect.
Archibald Aged in Cask — the first la réserve cuvée
In the cellars, copper gives way to wood.
Here, distillation becomes maturation: time becomes an ingredient, silence an ally.
For this first edition, our Master Distiller selected bergamot for its vibrant citrus notes,
and a blend of fresh and dried gentians from Auvergne for their complex, herbaceous bitterness.
Macerations and distillations are carried out separately in our copper still Joe, then precisely blended before 100 days of ageing in a new American oak barrel, with a custom “crocodile” toast.
This deep toasting reveals smoky, toasted, subtly caramelised notes, while preserving the bitterness and vegetal freshness of the botanicals.
A single batch per year: 9,660 bottles for the first edition, with similar quantities for those to come — all numbered and signed by the Master Distiller.
A limited edition, patiently crafted over 130 days: maceration, distillation, ageing, reduction with spring water, and artisanal carbonation.
A true distillery tonic, crafted according to the rules of the art,
reserved for the world’s finest tables and for our most loyal clients via our online boutique.
The first cornerstone of a non-alcoholic collection truly Hors du Commun.