Our Commitment
Responsible Production, Sustainability & Traceability
Since the very beginning, reducing our environmental footprint has been at the heart of our approach. Our ambition is to continue producing exceptional eaux-de-vie while constantly improving the efficiency and sustainability of our production.
A More Sustainable Distillation Process
Over the past two years, we have fundamentally rethought our distillation process to reduce energy consumption while further enhancing both precision and quality.
In 2024, we invested more than €160,000 in the installation of next-generation Weishaupt forced-air burners, as well as the complete thermal insulation of our Charentais stills. Together, these improvements increase energy efficiency, stabilise combustion, and significantly reduce heat loss.
In 2025, a further €360,000 investment enabled us to install an innovative wine preheating system that recovers heat generated during the distillation process before the wines enter the stills.
From Commitment to Results
Together, these investments have significantly reduced the energy required during the most demanding stage of distillation: the mise au courant, during which the wine is gradually heated until the first volatile compounds begin to evaporate. This phase has been reduced from approximately two hours to just one hour and fifteen minutes — a 38% reduction.
As a result of these advances, our gas consumption has decreased from 750 kWh to less than 500 kWh per hectolitre of pure alcohol produced, representing an overall reduction of more than 33%.
Efficient water management is another key pillar of our environmental strategy.
Smarter Water and Energy Management
Our water-cooling system has been redesigned to optimise flow and maximise water recovery. Storage capacity has been improved with a larger hot-water tank, allowing us to recover more heat and water during distillation while reducing water consumption.
Water treatment has also been modernised with next-generation equipment that enables each treatment to be precisely tailored, along with water softeners for more accurate dosing.
Finally, new air coolers and automated pumps, operating only according to production needs, have further reduced electricity consumption.
The lighting throughout the distillery and unloading areas has also been upgraded and fitted with motion sensors, allowing us to optimise our energy consumption as precisely as possible.
Measurable results
The results are fully in line with our ambitions.
Our water consumption has decreased from approximately 35 to 14 cubic metres per day, representing a reduction of nearly 60%.
We are now continuing this improvement journey with a new target: to bring our electricity consumption below 25 kWh per hectolitre of pure alcohol produced, further advancing the efficiency and control of our production process.
Our environmental investments do far more than reduce our environmental footprint—they also provide us with far greater technical control over the distillation process.
At the same time, tighter control of the cooling circuit maintains a constant water temperature throughout the process, ensuring more consistent condensation and a more precise separation of volatile compounds.
This level of control enables slower, more precise and more consistent distillation. Delicate aromatic compounds are better preserved while undesirable fractions are removed more effectively.
The result is eaux-de-vie of exceptional purity—cleaner, more elegant and more expressive, with greater aromatic precision, improved balance and enhanced ageing potential.
Sustainability That Enhances Quality
The shorter mise au courant phase allows us to extend the heating curves during the most critical stages of distillation, producing a finer separation of vapours within the condenser.
The new burners provide exceptional heating stability, even at lower gas pressures, giving us much greater control over flow rates and timing—two essential parameters in traditional Charentais distillation.
Recovering Distillation By-products
Responsible production also means making the most of every resource with the greatest care.
Today, 100% of our vinasses and the wastewater generated by distillation are recovered and put to use through our long-standing partnership with REVICO.
Vinasses are the liquid residues resulting from distillation, composed primarily of water and organic matter. Together with the water used to clean our distillation equipment, they represent a significant environmental challenge when not managed responsibly.
A specialist in the recovery of by-products from viticulture and distillation in the Cognac region, REVICO transforms their organic matter through anaerobic digestion. This process converts it into biogas, which is then used to generate renewable heat and electricity.
At the end of every distillation campaign, REVICO provides an official certificate confirming that all our vinasses and washing water have been collected, treated and recovered in full compliance with applicable environmental regulations.
Rigorous traceability has always been integral to both the Cognac appellation and our distillery’s philosophy.
A Culture of Traceability and Continuous Improvement
From the moment it is received, each batch of wine is identified and tracked with the utmost precision at every stage of its journey, from storage to transfers, from blending to distillation, through to the production of the eaux-de-vie. Tanks, containers and batches remain permanently identified, guaranteeing complete traceability at all times.
Our Organic Certification, obtained in 2023, strengthened and formalised practices that had long been embedded in our daily operations. Although the certification is no longer actively maintained due to the absence of dedicated organic production, the procedures introduced remain fully integrated into our quality management system.
Seven principles at the heart of all our decisions
Our production organisation is built around seven fundamental principles:
• Complete traceability of every batch.
• Precise monitoring of transfers, blending and distillation.
• Permanent identification of all tanks, containers and production batches.
• Regular analytical testing at every critical stage.
• Comprehensive documentation of all production processes.
• Strict hygiene and cleaning procedures.
• Continuous verification of product consistency and quality.
At the Distillerie de Saint-Martin, we believe that exceptional eaux-de-vie are the result of production that is both precise and responsible.
Every investment we make strengthens not only the quality of our spirits, but also the long-term sustainability of our distillery.
