cognac

Duke Ellington's Family Sues Over Cognac

Filed under: Spirits, Crimes and Misdemeanors

Way back in 2006 we mentioned that a cognac using Duke Ellington's name was going to be launched but now three years later his family has filed a federal lawsuit in New York. The family of the music legend says that Harbrew Imports used the name "Duke Ellington XO Cognac" without getting proper permission to use Duke's name and signature on their product. The Ellington estate says that a negotiation was attempted but never completed and they want all profits earned on the $150-per-bottle liquor.

This case reminds me a little bit of the case of Electric Hendrix vodka, a vodka bearing the likeness of Jimi Hendrix. Earlier this year, a federal judge in Seattle ordered the makers of the vodka to pay $3.2 million in damages for trademark infringement. In that case the vodka was pulled from the shelves but in this case it seems like the cognac is already nearly impossible to find.

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Tags: cognac, duke ellington, DukeEllington, lawsuit

The Classicist: Citadelle, the French Gin Made in a Cognac Distillery

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits, The Classicist

Summer to us, even when it's late in arriving, is all about gin. Recently we got reacquainted with one of the best, Citadelle Gin from France, and discovered its fascinating story. Citadelle is inspired by a recipe created in the 18^thcentury in the French seaport of Dunkirk. Originally, French distillers Carpeau and Stival took spices from ships returning from the Orient and Africa and distilled them in 12 traditional copper stills at the Citadelle Distillery, one of France's oldest registered genievre (ancient juniper distillate) distilleries. It might have been consigned to the history books had not Cognac Pierre Ferrand dug the recipe out of the archives and adapted it.

The process was ideal for Ferrand, which was determined to create a spirit with a great mouth-feel and the thirst-quenching taste of juniper berries combined with the complexity of a very fine spirit. It also solved the problem of what to do in the distillery's downtime; strict French AOC laws allow the distillation of cognac to occur only from November through March. The breathtaking estate of the Logis d'Angeac where Pierre Ferrand Cognac is made lies in the heart of France's famed Grande Champagne Cognac region and features classic copper stills, works of art in their own right. Citadelle now keeps them busy for the rest of the year.

Few gins are produced in pot stills, and Citadelle is the only gin distilled in a Cognac pot still with a naked flame. Distilling gin on an open flame requires a deft touch and far more attention than a column still or steam distillation which is otherwise used. It also means the gin is made in smaller batches, one cask at a time allowing the master distiller to precisely discard the "heads" and "tails" of the distillation, keeping only the precious, flavorful "heart". This costly distillation method imparts a texture only found in spirits distilled that way. The result is a carefully crafted gin, made from whole grain wheat, natural spring water and infused with 19 botanicals that when intermingled allow the complex flavors to create a subtle bouquet with aromas of juniper and citrus.

Gallery: Citadelle Gin

Tags: Citadelle Gin, CitadelleGin, cognac, distillery, Dunkirk, France, gin, Pierre Ferrand, Pierre Ferrand Cognac, PierreFerrand, PierreFerrandCognac

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The Classicist: Rémy Martin Louis XIII Experience Cognac & Culinary Tour

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Luxury Travel & Hotels, Spirits, The Classicist

The famed House of Rémy Martin, founded all the way back in 1724, has a new and unique culinary journey in the heart of Cognac, France. The great gastronomic tour, part of the House's Les Rendez-Vous Rémy Martin, focuses on Louis XIII, the jewel of Rémy's cellar and the most celebrated cognac in the world, as well as the birthplace of cognac itself. The day-long Louis XIII Experience gives visitors access to the "most coveted secrets and treasures" of the renowned cognac house, centered on a private tour through Le Grollet, the Rémy Martin family's historic estate and private cellar.

Guests will experience elite tastings of the prized Grande Champagne Cognac along with a private lunch and dinner prepared by the House of Rémy Martin's Executive Chef, Philippe Saint Romas, in either the historic distillery or a private dining room. Prior to joining Rémy Martin, Saint Romas worked in world-renowned kitchens including Paris' Michelin-starred Senderens Les Ambassadeurs in the Hôtel de Crillon as well as with Alain Ducasse. Visitors also will have the chance to explore the estate's wine pressing hall and view the historic stone stills. Guests are invited to appreciate the cognacs, chosen by cognac's only female Cellar Master, Pierrette Trichet, and offered the chance to learn how to blend cognac to their preference.

Louis XIII rarest reserve cognac was created in 1874 by the House of Rémy Martin. It is described as an "intricate alchemy" blended from 1,200 eaux-de-vie, created from the chalky soils of Grande Champagne, the best growing area of the France's Cognac region. Louis XIII ages up to 100 years in specially crafted oak barrels called tierçons (above). Four generations of cellar masters perfected the unique blend of myrrh, honey, plum, honeysuckle, wood bark, leather and passion fruit that goes in to Louis XIII, making it the most complex and prestigious cognac in the world. The precious elixir comes bottled in a Baccarat crystal decanter with fleur-de-lys stopper.

Gallery: Rendez-Vous RÃ©my Martin

Tags: brandy, chef, cognac, France, Louis XIII, LouisXiii, Remy Martin, RemyMartin, tours

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Enjoy the Cigar Lounge at The Montague on the Gardens

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars, Luxury Travel & Hotels

As I learned on my last two trips to the United Kingdom, there aren't many places where you can light up a cigar. Had I known about The Montague on the Gardens, I probably would have altered my travel plans a bit. The hotel bar has a dedicated outdoor cigar terrace, which for puffers, amounts to a bit of tranquility in an otherwise hostile world.

Toward the back of the hotel, like-minded guests can gather in the bar for a drink before stepping outside to a blissful smoking location with a great view of the Bedford Estate's private gardens. I tend to bring my own cigars when I travel, but sometimes like to sample the locally available fare and The Montague on the Gardens offers plenty of incentive. The bar has more than 20 brands on hand, including the coveted Cohiba Siglo VI. Smoke it gently while sipping a glass of Remy Martin Louis XIII, and you'll struggle to find a more enjoyable situation.

The hotel itself is designed to impress. It's a Georgian townhouse hotel with 101 rooms and suites – not to mention a two-bedroom apartment. This four-star establishment is within walking distance of the West End and The British Museum, and the "Type A" crowd will be happy to know it isn't far from London's Financial District.

Whatever the day's distraction is, though, return to The Montague on the Gardens and settle down for the evening with the cigar of your choice. Savor each draw, and punctuate it with your preferred spirit. Perfect.

Tags: british museum, BritishMuseum, cigar, cigar lounge, CigarLounge, cigars, cognac, cohiba, england, great britain, GreatBritain, liquor, london, londonengland, louis xiii, LouisXiii, remy, remy martin, RemyMartin, spirits, united kingdom, UnitedKingdom, west end, WestEnd

Ludacris Debuts New Cognac In France

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits, Celebrity Design

Rap star Lucacris was in France this week debuting his new Cognac at the Vinexpo event. Ludacris arrived in style in a chauffeur-driven Bentley and posed with a bevy of beauties dressed in identical black dresses. Ludacris worked with Birkedal Hartmann, a Norwegian-owned Cognac producer to create Conjure, which will debut in Norway in July and then here in the U.S. in the fall. The Grammy-award-winning rapper says that he went to the Cognac region in France to help create the spirit. He worked with Birkedal Hartmann's master blender, Philippe Braastad Tiffon choosing more than 40 different brandies to create the blend. Decanter reports that while Cognac usually has a grade such as VO (very old) or VS (very special) on the bottle, Conjure is ungraded because it mixes several different grades. The bottle design includes a print which is composed of naked female silhouettes. The cognac will sell for $34.

The AFP reports that Ludacris added a bit of excitement to Vinexpo with some of the top names in the wine businesses lining up for autographs. Ludacris said that his favorite drink is Cognanc and Coke which makes me think this Cognac will skew to the sweet side. Birkedal Hartmann currently ships 400,000 bottles of cognac a year but with Ludacris on the team hopes to sell a million cases. Other musicians including Snoop Dogg, Swiss Beatz and Dr. Dre have also entered the Cognac business, adding interest to a drink category that has been seeing decreasing sales recently.

Gallery: Celebrity Liquor

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Tags: cognac, ludacris, vinexpo

Pricey Cognac Is A Big Seller In China

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

Cognac buyers are still buying the expensive bottles in China. Blloomberg reports that Chinese buyers have snapped up all the available bottles of Pernod Ricard SA's Martell L'Or cognac. As I mentioned back in April, this pricey potable sells for $3,600 per bottle. The cognac, which includes eaux-de-vie dating back to 1871, was introduced in China at the end of last year. L'Or was Martell's answer to ultra-premium products available from Hennessy and Remy Martin for similar prices. The immediate status factor of a rare and old liquor contained in a crystal bottle seems to be irresistible thus far for China's newly wealthy.

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Tags: china, cognac, lor, martell

Hennessy Black, Cognac With Its Own Song

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

Cognac sales may be slowing for some brands but Hennessy isn't letting that dissuade them from the launch of Hennessy Black in 10 markets throughout the US. In addition to having a dramatic black bottle designed by French design consultancy Curius it's also different inside. The Hennessy Black is a blend of 35 to 45 pale and gold colored eaux-de-vie selected for their floral characteristics and aged in French oak barrels previously used by Hennessy for at least five years. Although the name might lead you to expect a darker, richer cognac, the Hennessy Black is said to have a more gentle wood influence with floral notes and hints of citrus and honey. Suggested recipes include serving it with a dash of lemon juice and simple sugar, with coffee liqueur and cola, with fresh ginger, simple syrup and lemon juice or Royale style with champagne, a dash of lemon juice and simple syrup. The cognac also already has its own song, "When I Step Into the Club" from Swizz Beatz." which will be performed for the first time at a launch event on May 5.

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Tags: cognac, hennessy, lvmh

L'Or de Jean Martell, $3,600 A Bottle

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

There are few people willing to spend $3,600 on cognac right now but if there are more than 120 of them in the U.S. they may have to fight it out. That's how many bottles of the new L'Or de Jean Martell will be available in the States. The L'Or de Jean Martell is called the ultimate expression of the House of Martell and is made from aged eau-de-vie from Borderies, the smallest growing region in Cognac. The L'Or de Jean Martell is a blending of several hundred eau-de-vie, some aged over 100 years in the house's cellars. It has notes of fruited candy, sweet spices and gingerbread. The bottle is made of Cristal de Sevres embellished with gilded garlands.

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Tags: cognac, martell

Hennessy 44 Celebrates 44th President

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

Hennessy Cognac gets in on the Obama hoopla with a limited edition cognac. The collector-edition, individually numbered bottle sells for around $30. A percentage of proceeds being donated to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund which awards scholarships to students attending historically Black colleges. A total of 180,000 bottles were produced and will be sold primarily in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Illinois, New York City, and Georgia. Like NY Magazine's Grub Street, we're pretty sure Barack Obama isn't a Hennessy man. Grub Street hopes he's a whisky man. If so, he's in luck, Scotland has extended an invitation for Barack Obama to attend a Burns Night supper in Washington D.C.

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Tags: barack obama, BarackObama, cognac, hennessy, inauguration

World's Oldest Cognac for $6,000 a Shot

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars, Luxury Travel & Hotels, Spirits

The luxe Lanesborough Hotel in London has just acquired the world's oldest bottle of cognac, distilled in 1770, and is offering it to patrons of their plush Library Bar (above) for £4,000, or about $6,000, per shot. That's considerably more than the ultra-expensive Louis XIII Black Pearl Magnum cognac my colleague Lisa Palladino wrote about last summer, which cost $2,500 per shot. In addition to the 240-year-old tipple, the Lanesborough, a St. Regis property, just installed a new walk-in cigar humidor, the first of its kind in a London hotel. The humidor houses 1,000 cigars and contains 25 private lockers for the personal collections of top patrons, who can enjoy Cuban and even pre-Castro smokes in the hotel's posh Garden Room.

[via JustLuxe]

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Tags: Bars, Cigars, Cognac, Lanesborough Hotel, LanesboroughHotel, London, St. Regis, St.Regis

Camus Cuv�e 3.128 Cognac

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

Coganc house Camus has unveiled their latest special edition, Cuvée 3.128. The Camus Cuvée 3.128 is its first super-premium offer and represents a new flagship for the house. It is a blend of three unique eaux de vie from leading vineyards belonging to one family. The 128 refers to the total of the ages of the three eaux de vie use in the blend (41, 43 and 44 years old).

There are just 3,068 bottles available in the batch. When those are sold a new limited edition will be created with a different blend of spirits. It comes in a Baccarat crystal decanter designed by French artist Serge Mansau, and is topped with necklace of pearls. It sells for $2,500.

Tags: camus, cognac, cuvee, france, spirits

R�my Martin 1989 Cognac

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

Rémy Martin has announced their first single-harvest cognac since Rémy Martin 1965. Rémy Martin has chosen a cognac crafted from the legendary 1989 vintage. Hot summer days combined with cool nights for ideal maturation of the Ugni Blanc grapes. Georges Clot, Rémy Martin cellar master at the time, strove to select the best plots from over a thousand exclusively located in Grande Champagne vineyards, choosing eaux-de-vie from four estate-owned plots. After 18 years of ageing in Limousin oak barrels which were kept separately in a dedicated Rémy Martin cellar, it was decided at the annual tasting in 2007, that Rémy Martin 1989 was reaching its peak.

Tasting notes highlight clove and fig with an intense lingering mouthfeel. It is sold in a black frosted bottle with a resealable wooden cork hand dipped in wax to create a unique seal for each bottle and sells for $300.

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Tags: cognac, remy, remy martin, RemyMartin

The Classicist: LVMH's Distinctive Vintages

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits, Wine, Books, The Classicist

French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH is best known for its marquee property Louis Vuitton, but the company has also amassed the world's most amazing collection of top-class wine and spirits brands under its Moët Hennessy group. The incomparable portfolio is celebrated in a suitably lavish new book called Distinctive Vintages ($200, right) just out from Flammarion.

Moët Hennessy owns too many luxury brands to list, but to name a few: Hennessy Cognac; Moët & Chandon, luxe Dom Pérignon, Krug and Veuve Clicquot champagnes; Belvedere and Chopin vodkas; Glenmorangie and deliciously smoky Ardbeg single malt Scotch whiskies; and the famed Chateau d'Yquem wine, synonymous with the finest money can buy.

The book focuses on the collection of fine French wines and spirits, personified in three regions that are "as noble as they are prestigious": Cognac, the ancestral birthplace of Hennessy; Champagne, home Dom Pérignon and its confreres; and Bordeaux, graced by the magical Château d'Yquem. It offers both a practical guide to the three regions as well as an explanation of the different vintages and results produced by the famed houses.

Gallery: Distinctive Vintages

Drawing rooms of the hôtel du Marc, Reims

Tags: champagne, cognac, Dom Perignon, DomPerignon, France, hennessy, Louis Vuitton, LouisVuitton, LVMH, Moet, Moet Chandon, MoetChandon, veuve clicquot, VeuveClicquot, Yquem

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Louis XIII Cognac and Christophe Pilet

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Spirits

Here at Luxist we've mentioned Louis XIII Cognac a bunch of times but the pricey brand has recently unveiled a new artistic collaboration with designer Christophe Pillet to create limited-edition collection of items including a crystal glass, a silver illuminated serving platter, a crystal candleholder and a display case. When patrons of certain high-end restaurants throughout the world order Louis XIII, it will be served alongside Pillet's collection as an enhancement to the presentation. They may also be made available for purchase through some fine retailers. Louis XIII is made from grapes grown in the most fertile region of Cognac, which are then distilled, blended, and aged up to 40 to 100 years and bottled in hand-blown Baccarat crystal.

Gallery: Louis XIII and Christophe Pilet

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Tags: christophe pilet, ChristophePilet, cognac, decor, design, louis xiii, LouisXiii

Exclusive Ltd. Edition Hennessy Sneakers by Jhung Yuro

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits, Shoes

Hip luxury lifestyle brand Jhung Yuro has created an exclusive new limited edition sneaker for world renowned cognac house Hennessy. Dubbed the Hennessy Celebration Hi-Top, the brown and cream (like the bottle) sneaker is made from soft full grain leather with a suede tongue and vamp, napa pigskin interior and a croc embossed overlay and strap. It also has a non-marking rubber midsole and crepe rubber outsole with a leather logo patch. Only 500 handmade pairs of the limited edition shoe will be available for sale beginning Dec. 1 for $300 at Jhung Yuro's (pronounced "young Euro") website. Each pair will come packaged in a custom lizard skin embossed shoebox with a braided rope handle. The cognac is extra.

Tags: Cognac, Hennessy, Jhung Yuro, JhungYuro, Sneakers

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