Pierre Ferrand is a cognac house based in Ars, France. The brand is unusual in that it controls the entire cognac-making process itself, including growing grapes, fermentation, distillation, and aging. (Most cognac houses buy grapes, wine, and/or brandy from other producers.) The brand’s vineyards are located in the so-called Golden Triangle, an area at the center of the Grande Champagne subregion known for the quality of its brandies. Pierre Ferrand eschews the standard naming conventions for cognac, giving each of its bottlings a unique name, ranging from the cocktail-friendly 1840 Original Formula to the long-aged Ancestrale.
The Ferrand family has been producing brandy since the seventeenth century, but the modern brand dates to 1989, when entrepreneur Alexandre Gabriel partnered with Pierre Ferrand to create the eponymous brand with an eye toward export to the United States. Since then Gabriel, who bought out Ferrand upon his retirement in 1993, has created a number of other spirits brands under the Maison Ferrand banner: Citadelle Gin, distilled in small copper pot stills; Mathilde, a line of all-natural fruit liqueurs; Plantation Rum, a set of rums sourced from various distilleries in the Caribbean and South America and aged, at least in part, and blended in France; and Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao, an orange liqueur made according to a nineteenth-century recipe with the help of drinks historian David Wondrich.
In 2017, Plantation purchased the West Indies Rum Distillery in Barbados, and along with it a one-third share of National Rum of Jamaica, which owns the iconic Long Pond and Clarendon distilleries. In 2018, Plantation began releasing new rums enabled by this purchase.
Gabriel’s activities at Ferrand have caused some eye-rolling and disruption in the staid world of cognac. He has also led primary research into the nature and processes involved in the maturation of spirit, adding to greater understanding of the concept of rancio. See élevage and rancio. His strong advocacy for the centuries-old tradition of aging and blending Caribbean rums in Europe has proved equally controversial in the world of rum, although the popularity of Plantation’s products and the awards they have won have been their own arguments for the practice.
See also cognac.
McGrew, G. “Cognac Ferrand - The Father of Artisanal Spirits.” Cognac.com, January 2, 2013. http://www.cognac.com/blog/cognac-ferrand-the-father-of-artisanal-spirits/ (accessed March 8, 2021).
Savona, Manuela. Email message to author, August 14, 2016.
By: Jason Horn