Audemus Spirits Christmas Aquavit
Cognac, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France
- ABV
- 42%
- Base spirit
- Unknown
- Color
- Clear
- Style
- Unaged Aquavit, Christmas Edition
Audemus Spirits Christmas Aquavit is a French aquavit produced by Audemus Spirits in Cognac. The small-format bottling was distributed by the Audemus team as a Christmas gift in December 2022. It carries a specially illustrated seasonal label and was accompanied by a card reading “Merry Christmas from the Audemus team.” The bottle itself is labelled simply Aquavit, while “Christmas Aquavit” is a cataloguing name used here to distinguish this release from Audemus Spirits’ other work with aquavit.
The spirit is bottled at 42% ABV in a 100 ml bottle. Its label identifies caraway, coriander, green anise, fennel, angelica and orange blossom among its botanicals. The clear, colourless spirit was produced as a small promotional or gift release rather than as part of the regular Audemus retail range.
The recipe closely corresponds to the aquavit that Audemus Spirits had previously developed with Cognac house Bache-Gabrielsen in 2019. That collaboration combined two separately produced distillates: caraway, coriander, fennel, anise and orange blossom distilled in a traditional Cognac still, together with angelica distilled under vacuum at the Audemus distillery. The matching botanical composition suggests that the 2022 Christmas bottling was based on the same recipe or its direct development, although the two releases should not be treated as identical without confirmation from Audemus.
Bottle gallery
About the producer
Audemus Spirits
Cognac, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France
Audemus Spirits was founded in 2013 in the Cognac region by Australian-born Michael “Miko” Abouaf. Before establishing the company, Abouaf worked in finance and studied social psychology before moving into spirits production, spending several years distilling Cognac for Courvoisier and Martell. The company was legally created on 7 May 2013, initially operating from La Barde near Cognac before moving its establishment to Cognac later that year.
Audemus developed around small-scale vacuum distillation. Abouaf has described the original Cognac setup as two 30-litre glass reactors together with a rotary evaporator. Botanicals are generally macerated and distilled separately at reduced pressure and temperature before the individual distillates are blended, an approach influenced by both perfumery and laboratory extraction techniques.
Ian “Bob” Spink joined Audemus in 2014 and was responsible largely for the commercial development and international promotion of the company. The partnership between Abouaf and Spink ended in early 2024, while Abouaf has continued to operate Audemus Spirits from Cognac. The company’s best-known product is Pink Pepper Gin, alongside releases such as Umami, Covert Liqueur and numerous limited editions and collaborations. Audemus was named Craft Producer of the Year at the 2020 Icons of Gin awards, and Pink Pepper Gin received Gold Outstanding at the IWSC in 2022.
Aquavit has appeared more than once in the company’s work. In 2019 Audemus collaborated with Bache-Gabrielsen on its Cognac-produced Aquavit, while the separate Audemus-branded Christmas bottling documented in December 2022 shows that the distillery later produced or bottled aquavit under its own identity as well.