FENNEL

Vincent Fanguiaire 
Director, GAEC de Peyronnet farm 
Valensole, France

Farming has passed from generation to generation in Vincent’s family. For the last 15 years, his farm has supplied Pernod Ricard with aromatic fennel. Fields of the yellow fennel blossom interspersed with fields of lavender form a patchwork that resembles a scented postcard from Provence.

PLANTS.

See these yellow flowers? That’s where the aroma of anise comes from, in the seeds they hold. These are flowers of the fennel plant. I harvest them at the end of the summer to extract the essential oil, the aromatic base indispensable for anise-flavoured drinks.

But my work with Virginie and her team starts well before that: we collaborate and exchange throughout the entire lifecycle of the plant, from the supply of seeds selected for their quality, through the technical support from an in-house agronomist several times a year, to harvest time. Every three years, I cultivate the fennel in new fields, to rotate the crops and conserve the soil.