Credits: Article and images by Ken Gargett @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/09/18/michel-couvreur-a-belgian-making-sensational-whisky-in-france/
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As we neared the conclusion of our visit, Michel himself appeared. When he heard that he had a couple of Aussies in the house, he had dug out some old records from the late 60s/early 70s – the accounts and ledgers, containing the records of all whiskies bought and sold.
Michel thought we might be interested to see the details of one of his best customers (although at the time, he had not heard from them for a few years).
The records revealed annual shipments to an Australian who purchased serious quantities of the Couvreur whiskies. What was truly fascinating was that the address for this gentleman was care of the Cooktown Post Office. Michel had never been able to get any more information on his customer than that. Just the annual order.
Now, unless you are familiar with Cooktown, it is a little hard to explain it. Located in far north Queensland, in tropical rainforest country, this is one of those places where you do not swim in the creeks unless you wish to feed the local crocodiles. Around 140 years ago, Cooktown had a population of almost 100,000 people and 90 pubs at which the locals could drink.
Cooktown was a frontier gold mining town. The closest capital city is Brisbane, both are in Queensland. To give some perspective, they are over 2,000 kilometers apart. So twice the distance from London to Madrid and even considerably further than London to Moscow.
When the gold ran out, the population crashed to around 7,000 and half the pubs closed. Soon after, it was under 3,000 people and it has remained around 2,000 to 3,000 ever since. There are only two or three pubs left.
So how on earth a local knew of Michel’s whiskies back in the 1970s is anyone’s guess.
We speculated that perhaps it was the owner of a large outback cattle station and he only came into Cooktown once a year to collect mail and other joys. Could it have been an old hermit living on a Barrier Reef Island who made the mainland only once annually?
Did the local pub put in an order regularly, although it was a little hard to imagine them serving large quantities of Michel Couvreur Whisky across the bar back in the 70s.
Perhaps it was a couple living on their yacht, traveling the world and dropping by once a year to collect necessary supplies.
We could only speculate as no one had any idea, though I would have loved to know.
These days, the whiskies are much easier to find. You do not have to go to Cooktown, though we’d never discourage a visit. The range is quite extensive. Here are a few stars, though no doubt you’ll find others that appeal. Enjoy the search.
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Credits: Article and images by Ken Gargett @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/09/18/michel-couvreur-a-belgian-making-sensational-whisky-in-france/
