While absinthe remained prohibited in Switzerland, Francis Martin returned to Val-de-Travers after several years spent in Bern. In 1972, an uncle who had distilled during the Belle Époque entrusted him with a family recipe, a deliberate gesture to preserve a lineage that might otherwise have faded.
It was then that Francis began distilling. In those early years, ingenuity replaced infrastructure; he constructed his first still himself, transforming modest materials into an instrument of continuity. The craft endured through discretion and conviction.
With legalization in 2005, Francis obtained an official license alongside two partners. Together they founded La Valote, a name uniting Val-de-Travers with “Malote,” a remembered figure of the clandestine era, anchoring the house simultaneously in landscape and memory.
In 2014, Francis entrusted the distillery to his son Philippe, who embraced this new chapter with determination. The transition ensured that the family narrative, once protected in silence, would continue in clarity.
