Byrrh Grand Quinquina

Around 1860, two young brothers, Simon and Pallade Violet left their humble home in Crosavy for Roussillon. Theirs was a modest family. Five children and a father whose livelihood rested in mule-driving made for a simple, precarious existence. Simon and Pallade knew that if they wanted to change the trajectory of their lives, they would have to leap. Once in Roussillon, they made a living selling haberdashery, fabrics, and wine. In 1866 Simon and Pallade opened a small shop in Thuir with a focus on wine. They started with just a few casks and small barrels, bolstering their work with wine imports with contacts from Spain. Ten years into the venture Simon would blend the local wines of Roussillon with local botanical extracts and the bark of the cinchona tree. His creation was simply named “Hygienic Tonic Wine with Cinchona." Eventually the beverage was renamed Byrrh, and the title stuck. According to one story, the name is a random invention: the letters B-Y-R-R-H were code letters attached to a few rolls of cloth stored in the Violet haberdashery. But the story itself is just that, and to this day it holds an air of mystery. Where the letters simply a coded bolt of cloth, or did they speak to something greater long lost to time?

Thuir, France