There’s a Completely New Type of Whisky. It’s French and Made in Concrete Eggs

The vines on Bordeaux’s Right Bank next to the Dordogne were first planted by Roman troops and settlers in the first century CE. Known for Merlot-dominant blends, with its clay and limestone soils, this region of France delivers softer, fruitier wines. If you're a fan of Pomerol or St-Émilion, this is your nirvana.

It is here you will find Maison Lineti, happily shunning 2,000 years of tradition by making not wine, but whisky. French whisky. A thousand miles or so from the distilleries of Scotland and Ireland, this small company is making the spirit in a way whisky has never been made before.

Even though Maison Lineti is not making wine, it is, in what is apparently a world first, applying wine-science methods to fermentation, distillation, and maturation for its whisky. The result is a floral, fresh, mineral, and textured spirit.

After the producer hosted the prestigious World Whisky Forum in June 2025, its methods have set the industry all aflutter. Why? Not only does the product taste exceptional, Lineti's groundbreaking techniques are bringing its spirit to the bottle years faster than traditional players using traditional processes.

The masterminds behind Maison Lineti's wine-made whisky are Magali Picard, a chemical engineer who holds a doctorate in oenology from the University of Bordeaux, and her partner and cofounder, Alex Cosculluela. The company launched in 2018 with their friend Xavier Payan, who studied wine and spirits management alongside Cosculluela.

During pandemic lockdowns, while the rest of us dusted off gaming consoles or mined the more questionable parts of Netflix’s catalog, Picard sharpened her skills gained as a spirits development project manager at barrel-maker Demptos to research a more scientific approach to whisky-making—one that leaned far less heavily on barrel aging for flavor and instead looked to molecular science, sensory analysis, and copious amounts of data. At the time, Picard even posted her progress online as an open logbook of her experiments.

The conclusion Picard and Cosculluela came to after these experiments was this: a great spirit is decided at fermentation, not by age. “Whisky makers are very focused on the style of cask. It's not our vision,” says Picard.

“What we try to do is not increase the production but focus on the quality of the whisky, and more precisely on the steps before the maturation,” Picard says. “We worked on the quality of the wash—the liquid issued from the fermentation, just like in the wine industry. We worked a lot on techniques used in the wine industry. For example, the use of lactic bacteria during the fermentation, and the use of lees aging—which is a process used for champagne or Chardonnay wines to increase the rawness.”

Before fermentation, organic French barley is cold-soaked to bring out its brighter notes. Then there’s a long, seven-day fermentation that builds flavor (compared with a typical two or three days for scotch). The addition of lees aging keeps the Lineti wash in contact with the fermentation process's dead yeast cells for a full two weeks to develop more floral and fruity aromas.

Picard also employs malolactic fermentation, a secondary winemaking process where lactic acid bacteria convert sharp, tart malic acids into softer, creamier lactic acids. Such a process wouldn't be allowed in scotch production, which is strictly regulated, but EU law permits such manipulation. In wine, the process would result in a softer texture, but in Lineti's whisky, along with that creamier mouthfeel, it adds length and even more floral notes.

Maison Lineti’s wine-based, science-laden fermentation process happens in the “egg box”—a remarkable space housing seven giant concrete, egg-shaped fermenters that reach to the ceiling. Cosculluela says the concrete allows for precise temperature control, as the material much thicker than the stainless steel that’s typically used. Additionally, the lack of internal ridges in the eggs supposedly make for better movement and churn of the liquid when the yeasts are fermenting.

The tangible gains from all this work before the fruits of their labor go into barrels are not merely limited to improved and distinctive flavor profiles. Cosculluela claims that Maison Lineti’s pre-maturation may well take weeks longer than other makers, but, crucially, it saves two to four years of barrel aging. This is how Maison Lineti’s relatively young whisky somewhat magically goes toe-to-toe with single malt scotch that is many years older. (Which it does. Take our word for it.)

It also means Cosculluela and Picard end up with more booze for their buck. A faster maturation to a minimum viable product, if you will, means the angels get to steal less of Maison Lineti’s produce. The “angel’s share” is the portion of whisky that naturally evaporates through the porous wood of the casks into the atmosphere during the spirit’s aging process. Simply put, less time in Lineti’s barrels means less whisky disappears.

“Every year you lose 2 percent of your whisky, so you need to produce approximately 20 percent more than the final volume you will need at 10 years,” Cosculluela says. “So if you work on the drinkability to get something really tasty and balanced in three years, you save a lot of raw material, a lot of space in your warehouse, and a lot of energy.”

However, for Picard, this use of these winemaking skills and methods is not enough to ensure success for Maison Linetti—comprehensive data analysis is also key. Excel files document some 10,000 lines of data per batch produced.

“On the brewing part, we collect temperature, the time, the transfer yield of the pump, the water added, everything,” Cosculluela says. “For the fermentation, we collect the time and temperature every 20 minutes. For the stills, we have the ABV, the temperature, and the speed.” As a result, Cosculluela and Picard can see the direct impacts of any changes they make. “We try to change only one parameter at a time,” Cosculluela says, so that any improvements can be tracked back to exactly what was altered.

“If we develop a project on the fermentation parts, we just need a different samples from the batch, and you can collect the data in two weeks,” says Picard. “But do a study on the maturation? That needs time. We conducted one three years ago, and we've only just begun to have the final results.”

The data science isn't the only thing that's been an arduous process for Maison Lineti. Cosculluela and Picard have been tested financially, too. In July last year, after all their hard work, experiments, and graft, the company was forced into liquidation when its main wine-producing backer withdrew from the business. However, before the worst could happen, Maison Lineti secured a new unnamed investor, a French entrepreneur who, fittingly, apparently made their fortune in the luxury industry.

This new injection of cash has resulted in, just this week, Maison Lineti's whisky going on sale to the public in the UK for the first time. The intention, Cosculluela says, is to bring the spirit to the US in 2028. The launch range consists of a core expression, called Calibre No1, sitting alongside two limited editions, named “Complications,” all three clearly referencing the luxury watchmaking world in their nomenclature.

At 47.7 percent ABV, Calibre No1 single malt is WIRED's clear favorite, and the most accessible at £50 (about $67) for 70 cl (about 23.7 fluid ounces). It’s described as the DNA of the brand—sophisticated, complex, and elegant. Complication No1 is matured in ex-bourbon casks and is limited to 850 bottles. It is more focused on the malolactic fermentation, and it proposes something different altogether, in no way trying to compete with the distilleries of Scotland or elsewhere. Complication No2 is limited to 750 bottles and is all about offering a profile defined by Oloroso sherry casks. All of these whiskies are just three and a half years old, but, quite remarkably, taste much more mature.

Drinks writer and presenter Becky Paskin, who is also the former editor of The Spirits Business and Scotchwhisky.com, is unequivocal in her praise of what Maison Lineti has managed to achieve. “What they're doing is probably the most innovative thing to happen to whisky in decades,” Paskin says. “By leaning on their own background and oenology, they've created whisky that is completely unique … for now. Other producers around the world will look to what they're doing and potentially start to use some of these techniques.”

As for the undeniably subtle and interesting flavors Cosculluela and Picard are managing to conjure, Paskin thinks the whiskey world is only beginning to see the distillery's potential. "You're only just starting to see the tip of what Maison Lineti is capable of. They've got all these levers they can pull. So, ultimately, we could see very creamy, very fruity whiskies. We could see whiskies that are more malty in character, but they always have this signature floral undertone. Every distillery needs a DNA, and that's what's unique to Maison Lineti.”

The World Whisky Forum's Dave Broom, who has also written 14 books on the spirit, agrees. “I am very excited by what what has come out, but more excited by what is going to come out,” he says. “In terms of flavor production, interaction between between wood and air and spirit, down to a molecular level—that is innovation, and genuinely groundbreaking. I think [Maison Lineti] is one of the most important distilleries in the world at the moment.”