Meet the makers of Anaiak Gin

We are delighted to present Gin Anaiak, a small-batch, award-winning gin from the Basque Country, produced by brothers Boris and Rémy Harretche at their distillery, Distillerie Harretche Frères, founded in March 2020, just before the Covid-19 lockdown. 19.

Due to the recent "Ginaissance" that swept France and the rest of the world, these brothers were keen to combine their passion for gin with a love of their Basque heritage by producing their own gin to present their own vision of what popular spirits. They want their gin to be convivial, to be shared and enjoyed with friends and family. And as you may have guessed, "Anaiak" is the word for "brothers" in the Basque language.

Gin Anaiak is a London Dry Gin, distilled in the purest conditions in a renovated old garage at the foot of the Ciboure lighthouse. And like all dry gins, it starts with a neutral alcohol of agricultural origin based on organic wine marc from the Bordeaux region. Their custom built 120 liter reflux still was designed solely for making gin. They have added several botanical baskets at different points of the circuit, which allows them to take advantage of different infusion temperatures, depending on the plants, in order to extract the best from them. Boris and Rémy insist on using local ingredients from the Basque Country, which are abundant and not yet exploited.

Besides juniper berries, hand-harvested lemon verbena from the plains of Ascain and wild eucalyptus from the mountains of Jaizkibel are the main botanicals used to craft their fresh and balanced tasting gin. The one-shot distillation process begins after the dried juniper berries have steeped for several days. The aromas of the juniper are gently extracted thanks to a slow and regular heat in a bain-marie. The two brothers not only produce their gin in-house, they also do the bottling, labeling and numbering by hand. They produce an average of three batches per month of 110 bottles each.

In 2021, during the Gin Guide Awards, Gin Anaiak won the "Best in France" award as well as the "Highly Commended" award. We hope you agree!