Massougnes Bonbonne 150 -200 Years Old
We have had this fabulous 150 -200 year old bonbonne for decades; it was given to us by The Comtesse de Bordelaise. She is a direct descendant of the last French Royalty, King Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine and has direct links with the British Royal Family. Although frail, she still lives on the remains of the Massougnes Estate near Aigre.
Once large and famous, the Massougnes estate has diminished considerably in size but over the years we have bought a few bottles of fabulous, historic and rare Massougnes cognacs from the Comtesse. She shared some of their story with us in a handwritten note, translated and summarised thus:
The Massougnes estate is about 400 years old and descendents of the original owner still live there. In 1800, it comprised 180 hectares with 40 – 50 members of staff. All was well until a terrible disease ‘Phylloxera’ destroyed the vines during the 1870s decade and most were never replanted. Instead, the estate took to raising wheat, barley oats, cows and horses. The old bottles of cognac were, however, well looked after. Every ten years the closures (cork & wax) were changed so the cognac remained at its strength of 41% abv. Thanks to this care the bottles of Massougnes cognac, harvested over 200 years ago, have been preserved in accordance with the family motto ‘All heart. All honour’.
Truly, history in a bottle, or in this case a Massougnes Bonbonne.
Richard Woodward writing in The Drinks Business last week, about Boutique Cognac Houses, names 
We were delighted to welcome Paddy Shave from Brightwells Auction House to our offices a few weeks ago. He brought with him an imperial half gallon (2.27 litres) bottle of Massougnes 1802 Cognac which had passed through our hands almost thirty years ago. We are fortunate to have acquired a number of these large bottles over the years from the owner of the Massougnes Estate, the Comtesse de la Bourdeliere, Marie-Antoinette Pintaurd des Allees – a direct descendant of Henry II and Eleanor of Acquitaine. This particular bottle from 1802 in the Napoleonic era, was originally sold by us to the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland, where is was on display for many years. Still unopened, it was fascinating to see it turn up for sale once more and although the estimated price of £100,000+ was not reached, it still sold for an impressive £52,000. We have sold one or two of these oversized bottles of Massougnes over the years (vintages range from 1800 to 1812) and still have 
The Rémy Cointreau Group has announced their acquisition of Maison de Cognac J.R. Brillet which is based at Graves Saint Amant in the Charente. The Brillet Cognac sale includes 50 hectares of vineyards located in 
Charles Braastad, Managing Director of 
It seems that we haven’t got enough variations on the theme of