Once upon a time, a little boy wanted to put Paris in a bottle !At Olivet, we prefer to bottle pears. Not because it's easy, because there's nothing simple about our chosen method, but for the taste and the beauty of the fruit bathed in a scented brandy...
Ever since the first pear trees were planted by the monks of Micy, Olivet's fruit producers have distilled some of the fruit they harvest to make a William's or "Bon Chrétien" pear brandy that has made Olivet famous throughout the world.
In 1933, Olivet's producers got together to form the Coopérative Vinicole et Fruitière d'Olivet, or Covifruit. Since then, more than 500 tonnes of ripe hand-picked fruit have been distilled annually to provide around 17,500 litres of pure alcohol at 45¡ or 50¡ proof, enough to fill 30,000 70 cl glasses, 7000 carafes and 4000 magnums with pears. This production is either sold direct from the Covifruit shop, in supermarkets or by wholesale suppliers to the retail trade. Covifruit also sells by mail order and exports to the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan.