Cognac - Remy Martin Distillery

The Remy Martin distillery tour began in a fairly elegant waiting/entry room complete with dark wood display cases of cognac bottles, a long bar in the back, and plenty of stylish seating. We purchased tickets for our reserved tour. At Remy Martin the base tour included two cognacs in the tasting including the XO (Extra Old) cognac. The price was correspondingly higher than the Martell tour. While we awaited our tour we were offered a small glass of cognac. We both selected VSOP. About fifteen minutes after the scheduled start of our tour, our guide rounded us up and the tour began. Apparently he was waiting for a group of five people with a reservation who never showed up. Therefore we would be the only ones on the tour today -- just the two of us.

Pre-tour glass of cognac at Remy Martin

Remy Martin's tour was spread out over a larger geographic area than the Martell tour, and a Petit Train was our chariot for the day. It felt funny to have an entire train all to ourselves. Unlike the other two distilleries we visited, Remy Martin does not allow photographs inside any of the buildings that contain barrels of eau de vie. The purported reason for the restriction is that the alcohol vapors that escape the barrels (the "angels' share") are volatile and could ignite at the urging of a camera or cell phone. While the vapor surely is more volatile than plain old air, I think the vapors are a convenient excuse for Remy Martin to keep their proprietary tour material off of the internet. (This is much like how in the USA airlines hide behind "security reasons" for any restrictions the flight crew cares to enact.)

Le petit train

Like the other tours, Remy Martin showed us the distillation process, barrel making, and aging of the barrels of eau de vie. Our guide stressed that during the distillation, Remy Martin includes the seeds and skins of the grapes in the distillate as it makes a more full flavored eau de vie. This was in contrast to Martell who removes the seeds and skins to make a (purportedly) purer eau de vie.

After another short ride on the petit train, our guide led us into an aging warehouse and down a flight of steps into a cellar. Aside from the rows and rows of barrels of aging eau de vie in the cellar, at the edges of the cellar were gated off areas where barrels of the private stock of the founding family of the distillery aged. At this point, since there were only two of us on the tour, our guide popped the plug out of one of the barrels to allow us to smell the aroma of the eau de vie within. It smelled yummy.

Cognac tasting at Remy Martin

At the end of the tour was (of course) the tasting. We were led into the tasting room which contained a long bar and several cocktail tables. Prepoured were our tastes -- one each of VSOP Mature Oak Finish and XO. Also served were some chocolate macaroons. The VSOP Mature Oak Finish cognac was excellent and definitely something I would drink in everyday life. The XO cognac was truly exceptional. I would also drink XO in everyday life if it weren't $150+ per bottle.

Cognac tasting with chocolate macaroon

Behind the bar were special edition bottles of the Louis XIII cognac. This cognac, retailing for 2600 euros/bottle, is a blend of lots of extremely old eaux de vie -- some over 100 years old. Even the bottle itself is a masterpiece, made of Baccarat crystal. Our guide told us of an event held by Remy Martin in which the distillery invited the crystal workers to the distillery where the workers (artists) could see the finished bottles each had made filled with cognac. The crystal artisans could recognize the individual bottles they had made by hand! We had only ever seen Louis XIII before at Duty Free, and wondered if we would ever have a chance to try it.

Louis XIII (Louis treize) in a limited edition  Baccarat Crystal bottle

Loius XIII and his friends

Happy to be tasting Remy Martin VSOP and XO cognacs