Category: Famous Cognac Houses

No history of the great and good would be complete without mentioning Unicoop, the Charente farmers co-operative for the wines and eaux de vie sold to so many negoçiants.

“Good and great” are words not often associated with this vast building alongside the main road between Cognac and Jarnac. The building is recognisable by the name of its main brand, Cognac Prince Hubert de Polinac. But strangely enough the cognac brand it is best known for is Henri Mounier, a once famous cognac brand name taken over by the co-operative.

The co-operative’s history is short and to say the least turbulent, selling eaux de vie to many of the big houses, particularly Remy Martin. It was probably their association with these big houses that brought them to their knees in 1999, and where then rescued in 2000 with a FF250 million loan by the French government and Credit Agricole, the French bank. The firm has operated for not a lot longer than the past thirty years and once again it appears to be in trouble financially, with talk of joining with another large negoçiant in Cognac

As well as Mounier, the firm owns a lot of other names including Paul Bocuse, La Fayette, Mallet and their biggest acquisition, the firm of Calvet in Bordeaux, They bought the well known Hardy cognacs when they also filed for insolvency. Their saviour in the early 2000’s was a large bottling contract with Grey Goose, the well known vodka house whose sign dominates all the cognac signs on the side of their building.

Who knows, perhaps another saviour will turn up? How about a white swan!

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.

The Prunier family has been shipping cognacs since 1700.  The first member of the Prunier family to start the business was Jean Prunier (1665 – 1732). He was a freeman of the port of La Rochelle, which was the main shipping port for goods on the western coast of France. Jean Prunier was a renowned cognac expert, and living in La Rochelle he had the foresight to watch shippers at the port and was able to create connections with traders (or correspondents as they were called in other countries) and was able to sell their wines and brandies.

The family remained in La Rochelle and Jean was succeeded by his son Gabriel Prunier (1711–1790) and his Grandson, Jean Prunier (1741-1843). They acquired vineyards around the town of St-Jean-de-Angély in the north of the cognac region, but François Prunier (1768-1843), moved to the town of Cognac. He lived in the old quarters by the Charente river in what is now the oldest house in the town. Called the Maison de la Lieutenants or Sheriffs house, it was probably where the mayor of the town would have collected the taxes on the cognac sales from the region.

Alphonse Prunier, who died in 1918, was the last descendent of the Prunier family. She called in her nephew, Jean Burnez, to help running the business and he eventually took over the reins of the firm. He then passed them to Claude Burnez and his sister. Susan Burnez, Claude’s wife, was an English lady from Somerset who inherited the control and management interest for the other family menbers. She retired in 2010 and her Stepson Stéphane now controls the firms and its management.

Prunier have been mainly negoçiants and have specialised in very traditional cognacs, holding good stocks of rare and old cognacs in their warehouse in the town. They also still own the old Maison de la Lieutenants which has become the trade mark of this very old and famous firm.

Brandyclassics stock a wide selection of vintage cognacs from some of the most famous names in Cognac, including Prunier…

Louis Royer is probably better known now than it has ever been during its long life, as a result of its takeover by the giant Suntory organisation in Japan. The firm was started in 1853 by its founder Louis Royer. He was a chief blender at another cognac house and he decided to establish his own distillery. He was an avid beekeeper and a bee is enshrined in the firm’s coat of arms.

Louis Royer is said to have chosen the bee as an emblem from the very beginning of his business and is said to represent the values that have always prevailed by the house, that of diligence and an efficient and lively organisation. It is also the regional symbol of craftsmen and their work.

The family firm has been situated in Jarnac and they have occupied a splendid chateau near the town centre close to the Charente. This is also where the cellars and offices are still located. Five generations of Royer family have run the firm, but since it was taken over in the 1990’s the quality of the cognacs have not improved and their range is now entirely blended. The firm ships over two hundred thousand cases of cognac to many countries as well as more than two hundred and sixty thousand cases of brandy and a further one hundred and thirty thousand cases of vodka and liqueurs. With a turnover of more than 30 million euros and more than eighty employees, cognac has ceased to be a speciality and what was once a great cognac house has now moved into the realms of globalisation. Their young cognacs are mixed with caramel and sugar syrups.

Ragnaud Sabourin is the only known producer of cognac who still uses all eight permitted grape varieties. The main grape variety used in Cognac is the Ugni Blanc, which represents about 95% of all grapes used. Colombard and the old pre-phylloxera grape Folle Blanche are the second most used grapes, representing around 4.5% of the cognac mix – so the remaining five varieties are only very rarely known, let alone seen. They are Jurançon, Blanc Ramé, Bouilleaux, Chalosse and the oldest of all the Balzac blanc.

Many cognac professionals will advise that the grape variety does not make a significant difference to the cognac. That may be true of the highly blended products used for producing VSOP, XO, etc but it is not the case with Ragnaud Sabourin who produce many single estate cognacs with some wonderful characteristics.

The firm came to prominence around the middle of the last century and it is no coincidence that they share the same name as Raymond Ragnaud, just up the road in Ambleville (the connection ended around the middle of the last century with a considerable level of family acrimony). The firm was started by one Gaston Briand, who was president of the growers association and succeeded by his daughter and son in law, Denise and Marcel Ragnaud and their daughter Annie and son in law Paul Sabourin.

The estate is more than 50 hectares deep in the heart of Grande Champagne and produces some of the loveliest cognacs – deep floral and fruity aromas with a classic and deep woody style. All the cognacs produced are aged for longer than the minimum periods. The firm claim that there is no blending of crus, just simply a single appellation of ageing that has provided its reputation for their cognacs fine quality. Whatever they say, their cognacs are exceptional in quality and are some of the most complex light cognacs we have tasted.

Martell is the oldest of Cognacs big four firms. It was started in 1715 when Jean Martell arrived in Cognac from his native Jersey, which was in those days a centre for smuggling brandy into Britain. He married (in succession), the daughters of two Cognac merchants. The second, Rachel Lallemand, was descended from one of the earliest brandy merchants in Cognac. After Jeans death she carried on under the name of Verve Martell-Lallemand. Martell became the leading firm in Cognac during the revolutionary period and is still one of the two largest.

In the mid 19^th century control passed to the Firino-Martells who had married into the Martell family and continued to control the business for 150 years. The firm reasserted its dominance after the phylloxera and built magnificent new distilleries, many warehouses and bottling lines. The firm flourished by hard, painstaking selling of its brandies to pubs and cafés in France and Britain (incidentally, Martell pioneered the half bottle, still to be found in many homes today).

In 1922 the Martell’s struck up a 25 year deal with Maurice Hennessy, who were friends. This helped the firm gain dominance in Britain and Hennessy in Ireland. Martell also built up considerable land holdings in Grande and Petite Champagne as well as the Borderies, from where much of its wines originate. In all they had about 270 hectares, but today only a small percentage of that is still owned by the company, producing only one or two percent of their needs.

The firm are firm believers in blending and buy their brandies from around 2600 producers in the main cru’s. The cognacs are stored mainly in Tronçais oak – it is a more tightly grained wood which allows them to mature more slowly. It is often well suited to cognacs from the Borderies, much preferred by Martell, and providing a nutty style to their cognacs.

The Larsen brand of is probably known in every cognac drinking country for their Viking Ship logo. The firm was established in 1926 by Jens Reidar Larsen who came from Tromso, north of the arctic circle in Norway. The firm are quick to point out that the term Viking refers to a state of mind rather than the plundering race of warriors searching many countries for wealth!

Jens Larsen was a cognac connoisseur and became charmed by the inimitable atmosphere and people of Cognac. Jens was a businessman and after a while bought a small cognac company belonging to a Joseph Gautier. There were many difficulties, but he eventually managed to change the name to Larsen, which quickly became recognisable to the Scandinavian markets.

He married a local girl and had two children. Jean, the eldest took over the business in the 1960’s and was largely responsible for building up the prosperity of the Larsen brand throughout the world. The present generation, Frédéric, Nicolas and Anne now control the reins of the family business, utilising the trademark “Drakkar” – symbol of its Norseman history.

Originally the firm sold most of its cognacs in casks mainly to the state monopolies of its native Scandinavia, before it widened its trade throughout Europe, which nowadays buys more than 75% of its cognacs. It buys its cognacs mainly from the Fins Bois and the Champagnes – but less than a fifth of its sales go to the top end of the markets and they concentrate on the cheaper end of the market. They often distinctive bottles and decanters, including ceramic Viking Ships and Norseman Warriors, which have been successful in the Far East. Larsen pride themselves on the lightness of their cognacs but in truth many have to be reduced – sugar syrups are used to reduce the aggressiveness of their character. The firm still have a few vintage cognacs including an interesting 1973.

Hine is one of the most venerable and deservedly respected names in Cognac. It was founded by an immigrant from Dorset, Thomas Hine, who settled in Jarnac in 1791 and married into the Delamain family and became a partner.

The Hine company was founded in 1817 by Thomas who died aged 47. He was succeeded by Isaac Georges (1843-1902), Georges Thomas (1881-1940), Francois Thomas,(1908-1983), Robert (1912-1994) and Bernard Thomas Hine 1939 the current Hine family member.  The firm became well known for the cognacs it shipped in cask to British Wine Merchants, for bottling under its name for sale to the aristocracy (the firm still supplies the Royal Family).

With reluctance Hine accepted the necessity for its own trademark, the stag (this may be a pun, since a hind is a female deer), and only introduced after the Second World War. In 1971 Hine was bought by the Distillers company, which was itself taken over by Guinness in 1986, and was then sold by them to Hennessy. The firm is still run by the cousins Jacques and Bernard Hine, the founder’s great-great-great-grandsons.

Bernard Hine, a well known taster still blends Hines Cognacs to maintain the family’s tradition of elegance and lightness. Hine has neither stills nor vines of its own, buying half its cognacs young, the other half old. They use only small Limousin casks to store their cognacs.

The Hine style excludes cognacs from the Borderies, so the cognacs are only from the Champagnes and the premier Fins Bois. At their best Hines cognacs have a rare balance of warmth, depth and elegance. But their necessary and newer dependence on younger eaux de vie has reduced the minimum ages of their blended cognacs, which tends to affect their balance. Hine has always sold cognacs to be matured in Britain, many of which have a fine elegance as a result of their long ageing and proving that vintages do matter in Cognac.

Perhaps we best know of Hardy Cognacs for their very old pre-phylloxera cognacs such as the famous 1805, but the firm has prospered in America with more generic cognacs and some special presentations bottles.

The firm was started in 1863 by Anthony Hardy, a wines and spirits trader in London. He moved to the Charente region and changed his name to Antoine after high taxes in the UK forced him to close his UK business. He had bought land, vines and learnt to distil the wines, but in 1878 the phylloxera had destroyed much of his estate. Fortunately he had made many good cognacs and his cellars had bountiful stocks, which he was able to sell to the cognac negoçiants.

Much of his market was in Russia and an alliance celebrating the trade between the countries was established.  Antoine’s son Valère joined the business around 1900 and between them tried to develop the Eastern European markets, a mission that was not entirely successful. Valère died early, but one of his five children, Armand, took over as president of the firm where he remained until he died in 1957. During the difficult war years Armand played a part in preserving the cognac stocks from the Germans, by buying and storing cognacs from the growers, and ageing them in his cellars.

Armand had six children – the four boys, Philippe, Jacques, Francis and Jean-Antoine, all who joined the firm and helped to increase the sales to North and South America. When Armand died Jacques Hardy took over the role of president. He was a collector of old cognacs and built up a cellar of fine vintages which he stored in the cellars of Merinville, then owned by his old friend Jacques Boursard. Unfortunately the heavy stocks and economic difficulties in the 1990’s meant the firm was sold, but the name still continues. Jacques died in 2006 and his two daughters work for the new owners and maintain sales in America and Northern Europe.

Brandyclassics have 3 exceptionally old cognacs from 1805 for sale, including an A. Hardy 1805 Grande Champagne. The scarcity of these rare vintage cognacs makes them extremely sought after by cognac connoisseurs and hence are not just “reassuringly expensive”, but very expensive…

Otard is one of Cognacs most famous names, thanks partly to it’s ownership of the 16th century Château de Cognac, which deservedly is the town’s most famous historic monument, as well as being ideal for the maturing brandy.

The firm was founded in 1795 by Jean Dupuy, a local grower and Jean-Antoine Otard de la Grange, a local land owner who had to be rescued by his tenants from the Revolutionary Terror. He was the descendant of a leading Scottish family devoted to the failing fortunes of the House of Stuart, whom they followed into exile in France. Otard and Dupuy flourished sufficiently to buy the château and become one of Cognac’s ‘Big Three’ in the early 19th century (M Otard’s town house is now the town hall).

In the early 20th century the family “became more interested in public and social life than in Business” according to M de Ramefort, whose family bought the firm in 1930. His predecessors had relied too heavily on the Latin American market, and when their competitors began to sell their brandies in bottles under their own names, they declared “we are not grocers”. The firm has never owned any vineyards or stills: however, it’s VSOP Baron Otard helped its reputation in the 1970’s with its distinctive black bottle. In 1975 they bought Exshaw, a well know firm which was founded in 1805 but had dwindled into insignificance by 1945 and whose main markets were in the UK.

Otard was bought in 1986 by Bass, the British Brewing Company after a period in which the Rameforts shared control with St Raphael (the aperitif company controlled by Martini which bought back the company in 1989). Since then Otard has acted as the spearhead of the group’s various cognac interests, which also include Exshaw and Chateau de la Grange – a cognac which is sold mainly in the Asian markets and Far East. The current cognac range now contains considerable levels of sugar syrup to help hide their youthfulness.