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Today we went to the Grand Marnier factory. (They don't normally let small groups take the tour but they put the four of us with a bigger group of oldies. So it was enough, and it was free.)First we heard about their products and the basics of the production process before taking a tour of the factory. We saw the bitter orange rinds they use for the flavour, the machines for processing them and the vats for maceration. They showed us the stills for extracting the orange flavour (and cherry, for their other liqueur) and had us smell the different fractions of the distillation. Apparently the good fraction is 90-92˙C (cooler than that is the orange oil they sell off as cleaning product).
We got to see all the huge oak barrels for first ageing the cognac, then ageing the mixed liqueur. That cellar smelt really good!
And finally they gave us free taste tests! We got to try their Cherry Marnier and vanilla Navarn liqueurs; they were ok but not worth the price. Then they gave us some of the Louis-Alexandre Grand Marnier; it tasted not much different from the standard Cordon Rouge, so not worth the extra money (30€64 /700mL vs 19€21 for Cordon Rouge). But lastly they even let us try the super-expensive Centenaire Grand Marnier (41€41); I could taste the difference with that one but I'm not prepared to pay twice as much for it, I think I'd rather have twice as much of the Cordon Rouge!The only one we didn't get to try was the hyper-expensive Cent-Cinquantenaire (84€06). Cindy wants to go back next time we're here so maybe they'll offer us one then.
4 comments:
you and your orange flavoured treats!!
Sounds interesting.
You do realise that your blog here looks like cameron's? Surely we could have some diveristy in blog backgrounds!
Hi,
We are going to be in the area in January and were thinking about doing a tour of the GM factory. There will be 4 of us.
Could you tell me how you made reservations? Did you just show up or did you book ahead of time? I haven't seen anything on the GM website about arranging a tour.
Thanks for any information you might have to help us!
Dorothy
Dorothy,
You certainly can't just show up. The tours don't run often and they're meant for business and community groups. We were lucky because we phoned ahead (I think we just got the number from the Pages Jaunes). But we didn't reserve a tour, they told us when there was a tour already booked and allowed us to tag along.
Did I mention that everything's in French? It's not really for tourists so if that's a problem for anyone in your group then they might not be so welcoming.
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