Rémy Martin Celebrates 300 Years Of Cognac With An Eye Toward The Future _ Forbes

Forbes

This year Rémy Martin, one of the big four Cognac houses, turns 300 years old. 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.  Global Executive Director Amaury Vinclet shares the history of 300 years of the House of Rémy Martin, and the secret to the brand's longevity. With an eye on the next 300 years, Rémy Martin brought together industry tastemakers, mixologists and more at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans for an exclusive celebration, complete with an exclusive performance by Coco & Breezy, and crafted cocktails from industry experts at Harry’s Bar, Accomplice Bar, and Allegory DC.  Read the full story on Forbes:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/jilliandara/2024/01/16/rmy-martin-celebrates-300th-anniversary-with-limited-edition-coupe/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00300 years ago, a man called Rémy Martin decided to sell cognac under his name.

00:08And what's very unique about Rémy Martin, he was a winemaker, a wine grower.

00:14And we are the only major great house of cognac to be created by one wine grower,

00:22where a lot of the other houses were created by traders.

00:26And from the beginning, this relationship to the grapes has been very important for Rémy Martin.

00:35I think the recipe for success is this obsession for quality. Make no shortcuts.

00:43What sets Rémy Martin apart from other cognac producers is its style. Our style

00:50is our quality. I think we've always tried to seek the best quality with no compromise.

00:57That's really the obsession. And it starts with the ingredients.

01:04It starts with the land where we make cognac.

01:08Cognac is a brandy, but not all brandies are cognac.

01:14There is only one place in the world where we can make cognac.

01:17It's about 80 miles north of Bordeaux in France. And the way we make cognac is protected by law.

01:25And within cognac, there are six growing areas.

01:29And some people ask me, what does fine champagne mean on the bottle of Rémy Martin?

01:34It refers to the Petit and Grand Champagne Cru growing areas that are the heart of the cognac

01:40region. Since 1948, we've made a partnership with 800 families of wine growers, where we

01:46source exclusively all our grapes from these people.

01:51Within cognac, there are different grades, starting with the VS, which is the

01:58number one in volume in the US market. About 70% of the market is VS in volume,

02:04which means that the youngest component in the blend is minimum two years.

02:08Then you have VSOP, which means it's only after four years of aging in the barrel

02:14that it can be entitled to go in the bottle. And then you have the EXO, which means that in the

02:20bottle you have the youngest component that is minimum 10 years old. So after distillation,

02:25we call that an eau de vie. After distillation, they are aged and blended in order to become a

02:31cognac. And at Rémy Martin, we decide to age a bit longer than what's required by law.

02:37The more you age, the more you get interesting flavors in the cognac. Within the blend,

02:45there are different ages, different treasures from the house. And this is the recipe of the

02:51cellar master, Baptiste Oiseau, to recreate every year the same style, the same quality,

02:57with different harvests. For the birthday, we created a special coupe anniversary. We call it

03:04la coupe 300 ans in French, which is a limited edition. Using Grand Champagne eau de vie

03:11exclusively, Baptiste Oiseau, the cellar master, has put aside some exceptional blends of cognac

03:19eau de vie and added those eau de vie to the blend of the 290th coupe, which was inspired by

03:26the blend of the 275th anniversary of the house. So we call it the perpetual reserve, which is a

03:32tradition where we have a blend that is nourished and transmitted to the next

03:38generation of cellar masters. So it's a symbol of transmission.

03:47It feels very special for a Frenchman and for Rémy Martin to be in New Orleans because there's a

03:52strong French history in New Orleans. Today in New Orleans, we are going to bring the community

03:58of bartenders together for an anniversary, for a birthday party with Rémy Martin. Not a lot of

04:04people know that cognac is great in cocktail. They have sometimes this perception that cognac

04:10cannot be mixed, or it would be a sacrilege to mix it. Not at all. Some of the first cocktails

04:15created were with brandy. The Salz Rack cocktail is a great example because it was one of the first,

04:22perhaps the first cocktail ever created, and it's made with brandy.

04:26And in the 19th century, the brandy was mainly cognac. Cognac is extremely versatile,

04:33and it's really interesting mixed in cocktails. My name is Deke Dunn. I run a bar called Allegory

04:42in Washington, D.C., and we're at the Rémy Martin 300-year anniversary party.

04:47We love making cocktails with cognac. Cognac has such an amazing texture, flavor profile, depth,

04:53body. The barrel gives the cognac a lot of character, a lot of depth in the cocktails.

05:00Normally, we have at least one to two cocktails with cognac on our menu at any given time.

05:05This is our cocktail called Beat of the Drum. This is our take on a sidecar. We're celebrating

05:10Rémy Martin's 300th anniversary. We wanted to make a delicious sidecar that really kind of

05:14captured the modern molecular gastronomy movement, which is something we do a lot in our

05:20bar. And so this is fermented huckleberries combined with some Mesoamerican orgeat, which

05:26is basically Mesoamerican ancient grains soaked in water, combined with some mace, cinnamon bark,

05:31and some Rémy Martin 1738. We garnish the cocktail with a piece of huckleberry popcorn.

05:38The future of cognac is not an old man's drink. It can be for everyone.

05:42My name is Jamesy Musk. I'm from Accomplice Bar in Los Angeles. This is our opulence table

05:47milk punch that we're presenting for the Rémy Martin 300th anniversary party.

05:51This is utilizing Rémy XO, and we're presenting it tonight because when I graciously won the Rémy

05:58Martin BTA competition a few years ago, the most memorable moment for me was in cognac,

06:04experiencing the opulence table, which is a gigantic spread of ingredients, and each one

06:08of them is a flavor that is pulled from Rémy XO. So inside you have, of course, Rémy XO. We have

06:15pear, mustard, both Dijon and Chinese hot mustard because we work at a Taiwanese restaurant.

06:21There's honey, walnut, blue cheese, thyme, bay leaf. So a really luscious, rich, opulent milk

06:30punch. And then what better way to show opulence than with a little bit of gold flake right on top.

06:38How fun.

06:43I like to say we are in the business of sharing, you know. We share great moments,

06:49and there is a unique versatility with cognac. It can be enjoyed neat in a cognac glass, in a snifter,

06:57in order to fully enjoy the aromas of the experience, but it's also very versatile.

07:02The centaur that I have here is the symbol of Rémy XO, and this centaur embodies the values

07:09of Rémy XO with the feet in the ground, and the head aiming for the stars, aiming for the light,

07:16and looking at the future with optimism and ambition. My hope is that we will continue

07:24to craft exceptional cognac for the next 300 years.

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