Languedoc, 1646. Rumor swells. On the steep, remote paths of the Montagne Noire, a land of magic and legends, a mysterious beast sows fear. This is the unknown cousin of the Beast of Gevaudan. While in many ways the two may seem similar, there is one key difference: the Louglier is unanimously described as a hybrid creature, a cross between a wolf and a wild boar. Naturalists may dispute the possibility of such thing, but no one has asked for their opinion.

Disturbing Events in the Montagne Noire
Accounts of the presence of the Louglier in the Montagne Noire are rare and essentially oral, few having been written down or bearing useful information. The strange animal was first seen around the middle of the 17th century, when it drank water from a spring in the vicinity of what is now Fraïsse-sur-Agoût. The local populations at the time worshiped the waters, which were supposed to have healing powers, and from then on, this spring was called "the Spring of the Louglar" (from "lop", wolf, and "singlar", boar, in Occitan). Later, disparate accounts of misdeeds supposedly committed by the beast appeared, but the places and the circumstances are rather imprecise and no name is mentioned. The only known representation of the Louglier seems to be a vignette engraved on wood, published in a small brochure printed in 1774 by the Abbot Delprat entitled "Du Loup-Glier dans les Diocéses de Saint-Pons & de Castres" ("On the Loupglier in the Saint-Pons & Castres Dioceses"). One must wait until 1960s and '70s for a handful of more or less amateur researchers to take up the question from a more scientific perspective by resorting to cryptozoological theses.

A Fantastical Animal with Supernatural Strength
The descriptions, as scattered as they are, all agree on one point: the appearance of the beast. A huge wolf with a massive, stocky body; rough, bristly hair; a long, thick tail; and a nose that forms a snout. Above all, two teeth that protrude, one from each side of its jaw, like the tusks of a boar. The rare accounts never mention either any young, nor old, nor female lougliers. No one has ever found the corpse of a Louglier, nor any remains whatsoever—neither hair nor bones nor teeth. In short, everything would suggest a fantastical, purely mythical, animal.>
The memory of the feared wild beast has been somewhat diluted over the centuries, and only lives more or less unconsciously in the collective imagination, generally without being taken very seriously. However, if you happen to walk along the paths of the Montagne Noire in the very early hours of the day, perhaps you will feel a strange sensation, as though you are being watched. Perhaps the Louglier is not so imaginary after all...

The Occitan Legend of the Louglier, As Interpreted by Black Mountain
At Black Mountain, we dilute our whiskeys with water from the old spring in Louglier, the very one that the beast used to drink from centuries ago. And, we like to imagine, here in these Montagne Noire springs, there still flows a small portion of the wild and mystical nature of the Louglier, imparting its special character to our whiskies.

It was under the pencil lead and the pen of the talented Jean-Claude Pertuzé, a Gascon illustrator keen on history and Occitan culture, that the Louglier came to life in 2011. Jean-Claude left us in April 2020. We wish to pay tribute to his talent and his abundant imagination, which helped us bring the legend to life.