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… Read more

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… Read more

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… Read more

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… Read more

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… Read more

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 19th century control passed to… Read more

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… Read more

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… Read more

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… Read more

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… Read more