Rémy Martin is one of the so-called “big four” cognac brands and is among the oldest cognac brands still in existence today. Its founder, Rémy Martin (1695–1773), grew up on a family vineyard in the Charente region of France and started his namesake brand in 1724. In the early eighteenth century, King Louis XV had banned the planting of new grapevines to keep prices from crashing, but in 1738 Martin was granted a royal charter to expand his vineyards, giving a boost to the fledgling company.
For nearly the next two hundred years, the brand was run by several successive generations of the Martin family, until 1924, when it was purchased in a state of near bankruptcy by Andre Renaud, who gradually rebuilt the brand’s fortunes. When Renaud died in 1965, his will split the company between his two daughters. André Hériard-Dubreuil (1917–2002), the husband of Anne Marie, the eldest, proved to be a brilliant businessman and built the company into the commercial powerhouse it is today. Geneviève, the other daughter, married Max Cointreau, whose family owned the eponymous orange liqueur. This led to close ties between the two companies, including the establishment of a joint distribution network in 1969 and later a full merger in 1990–1991, creating the spirits giant Rémy Cointreau.
Rémy Cointreau’s cognac is all made from grapes grown in the Grande Champagne and Petite Champagne subregions, the two smallest and most prestigious parts of the Cognac region. In 1874, it introduced Louis XIII, a blend of up to 1,200 eaux-de-vie aged as long as a hundred years and bottled in a blown-crystal decanter that is still one of the most expensive cognac bottlings on the market today. In 1927, Remy Martin launched its VSOP, reviving an eighteenth-century age designation for longer-aged cognac that had fallen into disuse. Under Hériard-Dubreuil’s regime, the VSOP would go on to smash sales records and force the firm’s competitors to launch their own versions. It is still the brand’s bestselling bottling. Of the big four, the brand is in a rough tie for second place in terms of sales with Martell.
See also Cointreau and cognac.
Faith, Nicholas. Cognac. London: Mitchell Beazley, 2004.
“Our History.” https://www.remy-cointreau.com/en/group/our-history/ (accessed March 10, 2021).
By: Jason Horn