Product Overview
Created in 1906, in Hendaye by the gifted botanist and pharmacist Joseph Grattau, it rose in popularity when Grattau moved to Bayonne just before the First World War. It quickly gained a Basque identity (IZARRA means star in Basque), becoming a symbol of the Basque region and establishing itself as a jewel among French liqueurs.
Basque travellers would be sure to take a bottle of IZARRA with them wherever they went, to such an extent that, at its height, IZARRA had production sites in Latin America and Spain. IZARRA was appreciated by all of the Basque country’s illustrious visitors over the course of last century, from Hemingway to Edward VII, Nikita Krushchev and Jean Cocteau.
The Grattau family sold IZARRA to Cointreau (which has since become Rémy Cointreau) in 1981. Still distilled in its region of Nouvelle Aquitaine, thanks to the fashion for mixology, IZARRA became a key ingredient in Basque cocktails.
In 2018, VEDRENNE was granted worldwide distribution of the IZARRA brand.
