In 2024 Rémy Martin, one of the big four Cognac houses, turns 300 years old. That makes it more than 50 years older than the Oldest distillery in the USA, Buffalo Trace, and Remy Martin isn’t even the oldest Cognac house.
If Cognac isn’t usually your drink of choice it can seem a little intimidating but it has a rich and somewhat surprising history. With routes tracing back to the 13th century and an origin story involving being boiled alive by the devil, here are five things you probably didn’t know about the history of Cognac.
Age Statements On Cognac Refer To The Age Of The Youngest Component
Age denominations on Cognac can be difficult to decipher for the uninitiated. Most Cognac you see on the shelves is a blend of different “eaux-de-vie,” which is how the houses describe the component spirits that go into their finished Cognacs. Cognac must be matured for at least two years but many are aged for longer.
| Cognac Age Term | Minimum Age |
| VS, Very Special, Selection, 3 Étoiles | 2 years |
| Supérieur, Cuvée Supérieure, Qualité Supérieure | 3 years |
| VSOP, Réserve, Vieux, Rare, Royal, Very Superior Old Pale | 4 years |
| Vieille Réserve, Réserve Rare, Reserve Royale | 5 years |
| Napoleon, Très Vieille Réserve, Très Vieux, Héritage, Très Rare, Excellence, Suprême | 6 years |
| XO, Hors D’âge, Extra, Ancestral, Ancêtre, Or, Gold, Impérial, Extra Old | 10 years |
| XXO, Extra Extra Old | 14 years |
What’s more, the component blends can also include eaux-de-vie that is much older. Some Cognac houses keep a portion of their most special blends for future reference and to create an ongoing legacy of spirits.
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A good example is the Rémy Martin Coupe 300th Anniversary, which includes a portion of the cognac created for their previous anniversary bottling, known as the “Reserve Perpetuelle.”
“VSOP” Was Coined By The British And Reintroduced By Rémy Martin
The term VSOP stands for “Very Superior Old Pale” and the minimum age of any eaux-de-vie in the blend must be at least four-years-old.
The term VSOP was actually first used in 1817 in the British Royal Court but fell out of use. It was reintroduced by Rémy Martin in 1927 alongside their iconic brushed black glass bottle. Rémy Martin’s VSOP has helped the brand rebuild from near bankruptcy into one of the four largest Cognac houses. The VSOP age designation is now ubiquitous across all the large Cognac houses and is one of Rémy Martin’s most popular expressions.
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This year Rémy Martin is celebrating the 300th anniversary of the house. Part of the celebrations include an anniversary edition of the VSOP as well as other celebratory releases.
The Dutch Helped Shape Cognac As We Know It
The Dutch loved French wine and back in the 13th century that meant shipping it to Holland along the Charente River. By the 16th century they had started distilling the wine on arrival to better preserve it. The distilled wine was named “brandwijn,” which translates to burnt wine. Eventually the traders realized it was more economical to distill the wine before shipping it.
The Dutch imported copper stills from Amsterdam to distill the wine in situ, then shipped the distilled wine in casks back to Holland. The introduction of copper still technology combined with the inadvertent maturing of the brandwijn in casks when transporting the spirit back to Holland formed the basis for the brandy, and eventually Cognac, that we know today.
The Devil Inspired Cognac’s Double Distillation
While the Dutch play a big part in the history of Cognac, they certainly take joint credit with the Devil—at least according to the movie worthy legend of the birth of Cognac.
To create the profile and alcohol levels that we recognise as Cognac the eaux-de-vie has to be distilled twice. Chevalier de la Croix Maron, Lord of Segonzac is credited with the introduction of double distillation thanks to his “pious” nature. I should mention that this self-proclaimed pious man murdered his wife and her lover when he found them in bed together on his return from the crusades. Oddly enough it seems he felt a bit guilty, and kept dreaming of being boiled alive by the Devil. Only the Devil had to revert to boiling Lord Segonzac twice to extract his soul, apparently because he was so pious. Just remember it was the 16th century.
Thankfully for lovers of Cognac, our probably-not-that-pios Segonzac redirected his guilt and decided the dreams were a message from God. He decided to try extracting the soul of his eaux-de-vie by distilling it twice, creating what we know as Cognac.
The Oldest Cognac House Is Over 380 Years Old
While the USA’s Buffalo Trace distillery was established in a truly impressive 1775, Augier is credited with being the oldest Cognac house in France that is operational today. Augier was established in 1643 by Philippe Augier. It is not classed as one of the “Big Four” Cognac houses, which are Hennessy (established 1765), Remy Martin (established 1724), Martell (established 1715), and Courvoisier (established 1828).
In 2013 Augier was purchased by Pernod Ricard, the second largest wine and spirits company in the world. Pernod Ricard also owns Martell, so don’t be surprised if you start seeing more of the historic brand, especially as we approach their 400th anniversary!
Cognac Helped Shape The French Glassmaking Industry
Cognac is a type of brandy, but not all brandy is Cognac. Like many specialist foods and drinks around the world Cognac production is protected—think Champagne, scotch, sherry and parmesan cheese to name a few. Under French law, for a brandy to be called Cognac it must meet a series of strict legal requirements, however unlike scotch, Champagne and sherry, bottling location is not restricted. That means Cognac can be bottled anywhere as long as the other origin and maturation requirements are met.
Despite the freedom to bottle elsewhere, in the middle of the 19th century the Cognac houses started to bottle their product before shipping. This is because the cheapest option is not always the best for end profit.
The Cognac houses realized that while shipping in casks and bottling at the destination can help keep transport costs down, it wasn’t good for consistency or brand. That’s because a spirit will keep maturing in wood, so even a master blender cannot be sure what their product will taste like at the end of a long journey between France and for example America or Shanghai. Those kinds of small variations become increasingly important as brands start trading globally.
Glass on the other hand is considered inert, giving a consistent product. But just as significantly, a bottle is an important marketing tool when building a brand in new markets.
The change to shipping in glass coincided with the wider global expansion of Cognac into Asian markets and the need for consistent branding. It also spurred the French development of machine made glass bottles.
Cognac based glassmaker Claude Boucher began development of a semi-automatic bottle machine in 1984. He finalized his design in 1897 and installed it in his Cognac based St Martin glass factory. The Boucher machine is not quite as well known as its early American and English counterparts, but was also sold internationally and ran at the St Martin factory in Cognac until 1930.
In the early days machine made bottles were not significantly cheaper than hand blown ones. I think that’s interesting as it shows that it was not cost savings that drove the development of a glass factory in Cognac. Instead, machine made bottles were more consistent and could produce more bottles faster, and for the expanding Cognac industry—and others requiring glass bottles at the time—those factors were as important as the price in driving development.
We see this phenomenon today too. The understanding that began in the 1800s has been developed and refined by the modern drinks industry, who know that the cheapest way of doing something may not always be the most profitable. Packing, from glass to label and box, has become arguably the most important weapon in a marketer’s arsenal.
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