Laurent Agnès
Laurent Agnès is a one-man vinegar house in Charente-Maritime, the stretch of French Atlantic coast between Bordeaux and the Loire. He makes wine vinegars from Bordeaux grapes, a cider vinegar from organic apples, and a series of macerated vinegars in which fresh elderflowers, figs, raspberries, shallots or tarragon steep in the vinegar itself. Clipperton imports eight of them to Canada and the United States.
The house
Laurent Agnès did not train as a vinegar maker. He spent his earlier career as a landscape gardener, which gave him an unusually close knowledge of plants, flowers and fruit, and that background shows in the way he works: the elderflowers are macerated fresh, the figs go in whole with star anise, thyme and nutmeg, the tarragon is joined by cloves and cinnamon. He has now been making vinegar for some twenty years, self-taught and, by his own account, keeping a small part of the method to himself.
His summary of the craft is three words: oak, time and passion. The wine vinegars are made from single grape varieties, Merlot for the red and Sauvignon for the white, both from Bordeaux, and the red is aged for three years before bottling. Nothing is added to any of the vinegars: no coloring, no flavoring, no preservatives. He is choosy about raw materials, and he holds that vinegar, so often treated as an afterthought, can be an ingredient of real elegance.
What they make
The foundation of the range is the pair of Bordeaux wine vinegars: the Red Wine Vinegar, 100% Merlot aged three years, rounded and deep, and the White Wine Vinegar, 100% Sauvignon, pale amber with the grape's herbaceous, fruity notes and a hint of wood. Next to them sits an Apple Cider Vinegar made by traditional methods from organic apples grown in the Brie region, gentler at five degrees of acidity.
The macerated vinegars are where the gardener comes through. The Elderflower Vinegar steeps fresh elderflowers in red wine vinegar for a floral, faintly sweet result that suits seafood and summer salads. The Fig Vinegar adds fresh figs, star anise, thyme and nutmeg to the same base and is made for duck, game and cheese. The Raspberry Vinegar is bright and jewel-colored. The Shallots Vinegar follows the classic French recipe for oysters and vinaigrettes, and the Tarragon Vinegar, on a white wine base with cloves and cinnamon, is the one to reach for when making béarnaise. All are in the Laurent Agnès collection.
Why Clipperton chose them
Clipperton is a family importer, and some of the producers we value most are the smallest. Laurent Agnès is one person, a set of oak barrels and a great deal of patience, with no marketing department and no website to speak of. We found him the way we find most of our makers, by tasting first, and we have carried his vinegars for years because they do something simple very well. A bottle of his elderflower or shallot vinegar changes how a salad tastes, and that is reason enough.
