Page 282 - The Bite Magazine - Issue 11

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.
When 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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