HERITAGE IN A DECANTER
Louis XIII The Legacy bears the mark of four cellar masters whose savoir-faire has led to this unique cognac
Inside each magnum decanter of the limitededition cognac Louis XIII The Legacy, there’s a whole lot of hard work, a fair sprinkling of genius, and a remarkable amount of history. Under the House of Rémy Martin, Louis XIII has been created by generations of cellar masters stretching back to 1874, when it was first produced by Paul-émile Rémy Martin. Named after the French king who designated Cognac as a spirit-producing region, Louis XIII is a blend of up to 1,200 of the very finest eaux-de-vie from Grande Champagne, the top cognac-growing region, where soil rich in porous limestone and low rainfall leads to slow ripening and an end result that uncannily combines expressiveness with freshness.
Each of the brand’s cellar masters sets aside the very finest eaux-de-vie they produce, the ones with the best ageing potential, to help to make the Louis XIII of the future. After several decades of maturation, they are moved to some very special casks, known as tierçons, many of which are more than a century old.
In the case of Louis XIII The Legacy only 500 bottles have been produced; to make the limited editions even more special, former cellar masters André Giraud, Georges Clot and Pierrette Trichet joined current cellar master Baptiste Loiseau to hand-sign each of the crystal decanters.
“This is the first instance of us getting all four of them together like this,” says Marie-amélie Jacquet, a member of the executive board of Rémy Martin’s parent company Andromède. “Although they’re retired, there’s a longstanding, intense, emotional relationship between them and Louis XIII. This is a few generations in a decanter.”
Each of the cellar masters selects and trains his successor, and is the sole trustee of the legacy. “Only the cellar master knows the code that tells them what’s in the barrels,” says Jacquet. “None of the family know.”
The individually signed decanters, with a design originally inspired by a flask found on the battlefield at the Battle of Jarnac in 1569, are works of art in their own right, each mouth-blown by 11 master craftsmen. Adorned with fleurs-de-lys, the symbol of French royalty, and hand-pinched dentelle spikes, they come with a neck ringed in 20k gold, with a solid crystal fleur-de-lys stopper.
Open one up, and the precious liquid inside exhibits floral notes such as dried roses and honeysuckle that instantly perfume a room. So pronounced are these fragrances that when a sample was given to professional perfumers for testing a few years ago, they had no idea it was cognac. Other flavours run the gamut from deep, earthy notes of myrrh, cigar box and leather to fruity accents of honey, plum, fig and passion fruit.
Louis XIII has a long history in Asia, with the first shipment delivered to Shanghai in 1880. Meanwhile, Jacquet herself was in Hong Kong in June for a Women in Business dinner hosted by Louis XIII, and attended by various high-profile local businesswomen. “I was raised in a family that always took pride in all its members, female as well as male,” she says. “My mother was CEO of the company and she’s worked my whole life. For me the dinner was really a celebration of the power of women in business.”