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Troussepinete

blackthorn-leaf apéro of the Vendée

trouspinette

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. It’s stillnot easy to find outside of the Vendée.

Drinks

Pays de la Loire

Text © Dana Facaros

Image by echos