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Troussepinete
blackthorn-leaf apéro of the Vendée
Troussepinete, Trousse-pinette or Troussepinette—the name means the hole in the pinette, the wooden peg used as a barrel stopper.
The drink is made from the young shoots and leaves of the prunellier, the wild blackthorn (which have an almond-ish taste), which are plucked the last fortnight of May and left to macerate for a month with sugar and white or red wine and eau-de-vie. Farmers in the Vendée have made it since the cows came home.
In the 1980s, wine-grower Jean Mourat based in Mareuil-sur-Lay, decided to bottle and sell it. Still, it’s not easy to find outside of the Vendée.
Text © Dana Facaros
Image by echos