The four most influential companies in French cognac were Hennessy, Martell, Rémy and Cooissier. What is the status of these brands now? We briefly describe the relevant information below.
Hennessy
Hennessy was founded in France in 1765 by the Irishman Richard Hennessy, and the business has remained family-run since Hennessy Cognac, but Hennessy is brewed by Fillious. One of the three most famous brandy brands in the world (the other two being Rémy and Martell).
In 1971, Hennessy merged with the well-known champagne brand Moet & Chandon to create the Moet Hennessy Group;
In 1987, Moët Hennessy merged with Louis Vuitton to create Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), the world's largest luxury conglomerate.
Hennessy is jointly owned by LVMH and Diageo. Hennessy is part of the LVMH group, but Moët Hennessy is 34% owned by the world's wine giant Diageo.
Rémy Martin
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Rémy was founded in 1724 by a winegrower named Rémy Martin in the French region of Cognac and is embellished by the mythical image of centaurs. The brand is the only one of the four Cognac brands created by Cognac locals.
Rémy Martin expanded by acquiring a number of other companies. In 1991, it merged with Cointreau to form the Rémy Cointreau Group. Rémy Horse became a brandy brand of Rémy Cointreau Group.
Martell
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Martell is a young man from the Island of Jersey, founded in 1715 by "Jean Martell", which has a history of more than 300 years and is the oldest and most famous brandy in the world.
In 1988, Martell was acquired by Seagram, a well-known North American wine merchant, a Canadian beverage company.
In December 2001, Sglan sold Martell to the French Pernod Ricard group. It is now a brand of Pernod Ricard Group. Pernod Ricard was formed in 1975 by the merger of two of France's largest wine companies, Pernod (founded in 1805) and Ricard (founded in 1932), and is one of the world's three largest spirits and wine groups. Acquired brands such as Martell, Chivas and Royal Salute to become a global wine giant.
Moreover, Martell's eighth-generation Burley Martell had retired and moved his family to Napoleon's hometown of Corsica, completely severing relations with Martell.
Courvoisier (also known as Napoleon)
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Coissier dates back to 1809, when Emmanuel Courvoisier and Louis Gallois founded the winery in Bercy.
The first generation of the company was founded in 1835 by Felix, son of Ermanuel Covacier, and another partner, Jules. Because of his founder's close relationship with Napoleon, he became a licensed wine supplier to the French court in the mid-19th century. Later, "Napoleon's Cognac" was used to refer to Courvoisier. Today, the silhouette of Napoleon still serves as the symbol of all Coissier cognacs.
In 1909, the company passed to Guy and George Simon, an Englishman of French origin. In 1964 Coissier was acquired by Hiram Walker. It was sold to Allied Lyons in 1987, and in 1994 it merged with Lyon and Pedro Domecq S.A. to form Allied Domecq.
In 2005, Pernod Ricard acquired United Tomei. Coissier and Martell are both owned by Pernod Ricard, which mainly promotes Martell. In 2011, Pernod Ricard resold Coissier to global spirits giant Beam, an American spirits manufacturer.
In 2014, Japan's Suntory Holdings acquired all of Beam's shares, and the acquisition formed Bean Suntory. Coissier was owned by Suntory Japan and is now part of a brandy brand owned by Suntory Japan. At the end of 2021, Cooissier announced the launch of a new Chinese brand named Voissy.
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