Lillet Blanc Aperitif 750ml

Production Notes

The cellar master rigorously selects the Bordeaux wines used for Lillet based on their qualities and organoleptic complexity. Sweet oranges from Turkey, Spain, or Morocco, bitter oranges from Haiti, and quinine from South America are carefully selected each year for their freshness and aromatic richness. Following preparation methods perpetuated since the 19th century, fruits and peels begin their slow cold maceration in alcohol separately — after a few weeks, once the key ingredients have been extracted, drawing-off and fruit pressing take place, a phase that plays a significant role in Lillet’s aromatic richness. The fruit macerations are then mixed with the wine in a process called “vinage” (fortification), stirred until complete homogenisation, and each cuvée is aged with the greatest care by the cellar master. Lillet Blanc spends several months in oak barrels, allowing the aromas to mellow and its unique characteristic taste to mature, before the cuvées are selected for their aromatic qualities and degree of maturity and blended to produce Lillet’s characteristic smoothness.

Producer History

Lillet was created in 1872 in Podensac, a small village south of Bordeaux, by the Lillet brothers — Paul and Raymond — who developed a wine-based aperitif that combined the finest Bordeaux wines with carefully selected fruit macerations and quinine bark from South America. The same preparation methods have been perpetuated since the 19th century, with each generation of cellar masters maintaining the rigorous selection of wines and fruits that gives Lillet its characteristic fruity, candied, and lively flavour. Today, Lillet remains one of the world’s most elegant and distinctive aperitifs — a Bordeaux original, crafted with the same care and precision that Paul and Raymond Lillet brought to Podensac over 150 years ago.