The Good & Great Cognac Houses – Tiffon

Tiffon is now owned by the ubiquitous Braastad family whose name has been synonymous with a number of cognac houses including Delamain, Bisquit, Courvoisier.

In the start of the twentieth century Sverre Braastard moved from Gjovik in Norway to Cognac and joined the firm of Alexandre Biscuit. Biscuit was established nearly a hundred years earlier and was already well known as a prominent Grande Champagne producer. Whilst working for Bisquit Sverre met Edith Rousseau (the granddaughter of Médéric, who founded the House of Tiffon) ad they were married in 1919. The Tiffon firm developed under their leadership and by the 1940’s they had acquired the rather grand Chateau de Triac, a lavish building with castle keeps on either side of the entrance and with vineyards in both Grande Champagne and Fins Bois regions.

The firm has developed and now has a sizeable international market with sales in North America, Germany and the Scandinavian countries. Their cellars are in Jarnac on the southern bank of the Charente River which provides a good level of dampness and humidity for maturing their cognacs. The firm is still a private company and produces a range of blended cognacs that include the use of sugar syrup and caramel. One of the oldest cognacs is the Reserve de La Famille, which is said to be between forty and sixty years old. But others such as the VS, VSOP and XO blends are only slightly more than the required minimum ages, and they like other  houses have suffered from the shortage of eaux de vie.