Egg-shaped fermenters at Maison Lineti Distillery
Step inside Maison Lineti on Bordeaux’s Right Bank and there are plenty of familiar sights you’d expect to see in a winery. Workers discuss yeasts and casks as they walk from a glass-walled room full of concrete egg-shaped fermenters to a warehouse stacked high with wooden barrels.
Yet Maison Lineti is no winery – it’s a malt whisky distillery. The team behind Lineti is borrowing winemaking tricks to produce whisky in a sleek craft distillery that has architectural echoes of Scotland’s new wave distillers, including Holyrood in Edinburgh and Glenrinnes on Speyside.
The founders 
Dr Magali Picard (right) and Alex Cosculluela Credit: Gunther Vicente
At the heart of the action stands Dr Magali Picard, a chemical engineer who holds a doctorate in oenology from the famous University of Bordeaux. Her scientific expertise as whisky master is paired with her partner and co-founder Alex Cosculluela’s business acumen.
They launched the project in 2018 with their friend Xavier Payan, who had studied wine and spirits management alongside Cosculluela. Their team was completed by François Thienpont and his son, Edward Thienpont, whose family manages a host of wineries, including nearby Vieux Château Certan in Pomerol and St-Émilion premier grand cru classé B trio Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse, Larcis Ducasse and Pavie Macquin.
While other people spent the pandemic lockdowns baking banana bread or building back-garden bars, Picard hit the textbooks to immerse herself in distilling. Drawing on
