The Bite Magazine

With almost 300 years of producing fine cognac, Martell Cellar Master Benoît

Fil creates a masterpiece ahead of their Tricentenary celebrations next year.

Jada Brookes

finds out how he did it and the journey he took to achieve his goal.

hen you desire to create something unique that will

capture the qualities of the past, and be remembered

for years to come, trying to trace someone’s

footsteps yesterday let alone 300 years ago can be a very hard task.

But thanks to founder Jean Martell’s original letters, Cellar Master

Benoît Fil was able to piece together the story of the exceptional

and visionary spirit, Martell Cognac. Using this information, Fil

constructed a map of Jean Martell’s key suppliers from 1735 to

1742, visiting the winegrowers of that era just as Jean Martell

had generations before him. It was here that the Cellar Master

sampled eaux-de-vie and met the winegrowing families whose

ancestors had originally supplied the brand’s founder. From this

experience, Fil was able to set to work crafting the blend, leaving

it to age in barrels made from the oak of a 300-year-old tree,

and thus creating Martell Premier Voyage, an exceptional and

distinctive new blend containing 18 eaux-de-vie from Martell’s

cellars, in homage to Jean Martell. This limited edition blend will

also be instrumental in celebrating the brand’s 300th anniversary

next year.

It was in 1715 that Jean Martell, a native and young merchant

from Jersey, off the coast of Normandy, founded his namesake on

the banks of the Charente River, making Martell the oldest of the

great cognac houses. King Louis XIV had recently passed away in

Versailles, leaving behind a magnificent flowering of artistry and

craftsmanship that he had overseen during his reign.The original

family coat of arms found on the Martell cognac bottles dates back

to the Middle Ages and depicts three Golden mallets beneath a

bird perching on a braid; the swift soon become the symbol of

Martell.When Jean Martell suddenly died in 1753, it was left to

his widow Rachel to successfully run the family business. It grew

tremendously and with constraints of eaux-de-vie production, the

family were encouraged to move to a typical Charentais estate

called ‘Gatebourse’ with vineyards and cellars in 1833. Passing

the reigns to her two sons Jean and Frédéric-Gabriel in 1775,

the brothers continued their father’s work and when business

flourished overseas, the first shipment of cognac in barrels were

sent to the United States. England also got a taste of the cognac

in 1814 when Jean Martell’s grandson, Auguste set up business

there between 1806 and 1815, making Martell number one on

the cognac market, through looking after house interests and

outwitting the continental blockade to retain the English market.

King George III then granted Martell an import licence in spite

of the blockade. In 1990, the symbolic swift took flight and the

coat of arms was redesigned with modernity, but still featuring

the three hammers.

300 Years of Fine Cognac

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