|
In France, where she is the country's foremost writer
on whisky, Martine Nouet is known as la reine de l'alambic ("Queen
of the Still"), but if her early ambitions had been fulfilled
her claim to fame might have been quite different.
Growing up in Normandy, surrounded by place names
resonant of the pitched battles of 1944, Martine had wanted to
be a war correspondent. She studied English at university in Paris
but the closest she came to any fighting was during the student
riots of 1968 when, she says, "I spent more time on the streets
than in the lecture room".
Breaking into journalism proved difficult and she
was forced to take up teaching - "an unhappy period"
- for a while. Eventually she made her mark as a freelance journalist,
and for some 12 years wrote for a variety of publications on a
range of subjects, though none of them drink or even food related.
1987 was a turning point. Assigned to cover a five-day
gastronomic exhibition in Paris, Martine developed an appetite
for writing about food and made it her speciality. This was followed
a couple of years later by her first trip to Scotland and, more
significantly, her first visit to a whisky distillery. Not that
she was initially too excited by the idea. Having had some "bad
experiences" with whisky when she was younger, Martine was
far from queuing up for a dram. But seduced - "first by the
nose, then by the taste" - by a classy single malt, she was
hooked. Scotland became her new spiritual home.
When she told her editor back in Paris that she
now wanted to write about whisky, he dismissed the idea out of
hand. That, he said, was a man's job. But Martine persisted and,
finally, she got her way.
Convincing her editor was one thing, persuading
the exclusively male society of whisky distillers that she had
the right credentials (let alone the right sex) for the job was
something else. To begin with they were sceptical, if studiously
polite, and clearly viewed their visitor from across the Channel,
thirsty for knowledge, as somewhat exotique. In time, though,
Martine won their respect, and now she is welcomed with open arms
in distilleries the length and breadth of Scotland.
As a child in Normandy, Martine had spent countless
hours in the kitchen with her mother and grandmother absorbing
their culinary know-how. A bottle of Calvados, the local apple
brandy, was never far away from the cooking pot (though she recalls
that her father would never let them use the "good vintage
stuff" in recipes). Now her enquiringly restless mind and
palate sought to link good whisky with good food.
Martine experimented first with more peaty malts
and was excited to discover that the addition of whisky transformed
the character and taste of certain dishes, making them "something
quite special". She launched a series of "Cooking with
Malt Whisky" classes in Paris, working with small groups
of five or six. Marketing executives from whisky companies, historically
uneasy about their precious malts being perceived as a cooking
ingredient, sometimes sat in on the classes and were quietly impressed.
In France, as elsewhere, malt whisky sales are on
the up and up, with more and more women getting into the spirit.
As her country's only full-time writer on spirits (which of course
include her native Calvados), Martine must take much of the credit.
Her love and knowledge of whisky, and of the people who make it,
shines through her written work, and her imaginative exploits
in the kitchen have converted many to the cause - as well as expanding
our appreciation of some fine malts.
For the past few years Martine has been the culinary
inspiration and co-host for a number of hugely successful Aberlour
Whisky Dinners, with each gourmet course accompanied by (and prepared
with) a different and expertly selected malt. Aberlour is particularly
good in this respect, says Martine, because it has such a wide
range of expressions - "for example, a sherry-influenced
malt adds something quite different to one matured in bourbon
casks." Also Aberlour has "a rich, very distinctive
flavour, powerful though not aggressive" that goes exceptionally
well with food. It is this sublime matching of a fine whisky and
a great dish which creates, in Martine's words, "a complete
experience".
Her life is a dizzyingly busy one. She is the author
of Les Routes du Malt as well as a book about Calvados, of another
on chocolate recipes (some generously laced with spirits) and,
inevitably, one on cooking Norman-style. When she is not writing,
nosing or standing over a hot oven, she is likely to be judging
at the International Wine & Spirit Competition - the industry's
annual Oscars. Her induction as one of the few female Keepers
of the Quaich was an acknowledgement of her own, singular, contribution
to the Scottish whisky industry.
Martine visits Scotland every couple of months and
owns a house on the west coast of Islay, a deliberately
far cry from the urban sophistication of Paris. "There'll
be no regional bias when it comes to assessing whisky," she
insists.
|
|
