Renais Gin is made from upcycled French wine grapes from Domaine Watson, the family’s renowned vineyard in Chablis, and is now available in the U.S. for the first time
Everyone knows Emma Watson’s life as an actor in such iconic films as Harry Potter and Little Women. But who knew the Hollywood star spent her summers tending to the care of grapevines planted by her parents on a sprawling stretch of rolling hills that grow over craggy limestone in Chablis, France?
Those vines first planted in the unforgiving soil in the famous French wine region 30 years ago are now the main ingredients for the luxury sprit created by her younger brother Alex: Renais Gin.
Alex chose the brand, and the gin’s gorgeous golden glass bottle, as a nod to the French word renaissance’s translation as a “rebirth.” The name is fitting as his recipe starts with discarded grape remnants used for Domaine Watson, the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines produced on the English family’s vineyards.
“It’s like taking the best bits of the wine, what would be otherwise thrown away, and making this magic elixir,” Alex Watson tells Los Angeles. “My father put all of this love and care and attention is going into growing his grapes … and then they would be pressed and discarded. I wanted to do something different.”
And different it is.
Alex Watson’s recipe uses grape skins, pulp, seeds and stems after the fruit had been pressed as the gin base instead of grain, which gives it a distinct minerality, the same earthy amazingness that Domaine Watson is famous for. It all starts with the Kimmeridgian stone-laden soils that feed his family’s vineyards grapes, and is then brought to life with locally grown juniper, grains of paradise, linden flowers and acacia honey to give it a soft, smooth taste with a kick of spice.