The first luxury spirit shipped around the world, direct from the of Rémy Martin since 1874, there’s a reason Louis XIII came to be known as the King of Cognacs. Aged for up to a hundred years, by the time the decanters reached their destinations, they had already been witness to decades of history. And then they were enjoyed: Ceremonial balls in the courts of Russian Tzars, the maiden voyage of the in 1935, the supersonic flight of Concorde in 1984 – all were toasted with a glass of Louis XIII cognac.
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth sipped it during a dinner in Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors, just before the outbreak of World War Two, and after the Allied Victory in 1945, Charles De Gaulle ordered it in for his soldiers' first liberated Christmas. With its iconic crystal-spiked decanter, Louis XIII has been behind closed doors with some of history’s most powerful names, and some of its most glamorous artists. So as the King of Cognacs celebrates the 150th anniversary of its first bottling, and the House of Rémy Martin enters its third century of luxury spirit production, where better to indulge in the lifestyle of Louis XIII than Cognac itself? How best to learn what makes Rémy Martin spirits so special than to spend a weekend in the Grande Champagne terroir and see, quite literally, how history is made.
Except the first thing I realised as we were greeted atop the vineyards of Julliac-Le-Coq distillery, is that in Grande Champagne it’s actually quite challen.