Cognac legend Jacques Hardy dies

One of the truly great names in cognac died in May 2005. Jacques Hardy of A. Hardy Cognacs died in hospital after a short illness, he was 83.

The firm of Hardy was one of the last totally independent cognac houses of stature recognised throughout the industry and his collection of early vintage and pre-phylloxera cognacs is probably the best known and highest quality still available. The Hardy’s, like many of the old cognac houses are of English decent and started life as local distillers.

Antoine Hardy was a broker and founded his own firm in 1863 after working with many brandy houses. He gained much experience with firms in England and traders visiting from other shores. He eventually specialised in selling to Russia. Valéri had six grandsons. Francis was the mayor of Cognac and some of the others, including Jon-Antoine and Gerard, probably looked after the more technical side of the firm whilst Philippe looked after the French markets. Jacques went to college and studied languages, and went on to became the undisputed chairman of the firm in 1957. Jaquues daughter’s Benedicte and Sophie are the remaining family.

About a month before he died, I had lunch with Jacques at his house (as I often did when in Cognac). It is a particularly beautiful house and his cook is also particularly good. At the end of the meal Jacques suggested that we should drink a cognac, one of the greatest of all the pre-phylloxera cognacs, A Hardy 1805, from Jacques’ private cellar.