Team Leip Travels: 13 September 2025 Paris: Making Our Own Gin

Thursday, September 18, 2025

13 September 2025 Paris: Making Our Own Gin

Leslie found a very interesting activity, "Make your own Gin." It was too good to pass by so at 11:00 AM we walked over to the distillery to put our gin making skills to the test. We had some ideas of what we wanted to cook up and the distillery had a few sample recipes that folks could use as a starting point. There were six people total in attendance and add to that our hostess a young French woman. She had recently completed her internship and was given a full time job at the distillery. The story of the distillery was intriguing and detailed. It was conceptualized six years ago by a pair of female entrepreneurs, one on the creative side and one on the business side. However, due to the inherent risks of heat and flammable liquids no building owners were willing to rent to the business. Eventually the pair met the owners of a series of buildings that already housed a wine merchant, a cheese shop and a bakery. These folks saw the synergy that a distillery could bring to their little corner of Paris. Interestingly enough we had already visited the wine place on our first visit to Paris. It was called the Wine Cave and they have a wine cellar, an interactive exhibit showing the grape plants including the soil and root structure and a make your own wine experience. Two years later the business is up and running and, to our pleasure, they were offering English language Gin making sessions.