Jean Danflou, and urbane and charming Frenchman, is the head of the firm founded in 1925 by an uncle of the same name and producer of a top-quality range of eaux-de-vie. “We are a small producer. Quality is everything,” he says. There is a Danflou shop in Paris. Elsewhere in France, the liqueurs are distributed to wine merchants exclusive in their area.

The Danflou bottle looks classy. Called the Charles X, it is a short-necked, solid, dark green, The same shape is used for all Danflou products in all markets. Its contents are equally classy. There are no shortcuts for Danflou: for example, in a bottle of “framboise,” which requires 66 pounds of rasberries, more than half will be “framboise sauvage,” the wild berries.

The three brandies are produced in their own growing regions. Most of the soft fruits are grown and distilled in the Vosges, the hills on France’s northeastern border, with the exception of the William pears. Danflou prefers those of the southern Rhone, near Avignon, and has the ripe pears shipped to the Vosges distillery. In 1951, Danflou was the first to produce and market the “poire William.” What about the whoe pear in the bottle? “It adds nothing to the eau-de-vie. Au contrarie,” he says.