REMY MARTIN - LOUIS XIII - 1938 1938
Cognac
This bottle (with her original box) was made just after 1937, but before 1940, when production ceased due to the war. "Made in France by Baccarat" is engraved on the base, but their is no Baccarat logo. Very rare bottle - just few in the word
Many so-called "ultra premium" cognacs are of little interest to serious collectors, being in the main overpriced and over-packaged assemblages of eaux de vie created to fulfill the demand for corporate gifts, or nightclub high-rollers. Generally these are created from a combination of the house's own reserve stocks, and other eaux de vie purchased from wholesalers such as Tesseron. Usually they are made in very small quantities - indeed sometimes only in a one-off run. As fashions and the fickle tastes of the drinking public change, so do these cognacs, with brands appearing and disappearing over the years.
Remy Martin's "Louis XIII" however is different however, and occupies a unique place in the world of cognac, for several reasons:
It is made in relatively large volumes - the exact figures are a closely held secret, but certainly several thousand cases a year are produced.
It has been produced more or less continually in the same distinctive bottle for over 130 years, since 1874.
ALL the cognacs that go into the Louis XIII blend are from Remy Martin's own stocks, and they are specifically selected for this purpose NOT after decades of ageing as one might expect , but as young brandies, right at the beginning of their life, shortly after distillation.
No bought-in eaux de vie are used, nor any that were not originally chosen for the blend. More than a million litres of cognac especially set aside for Louis XIII are ageing in Remy Martin's cellars at any one time.
The final product is a blend of up to 1200 different eaux-de-vie aged between 40 and 100 years old. In the last 75 years Remy Martin has had just three maitres de chai responsible for blending the final cuvee, so the current bottling is in effect a collaboration between three generations of cellarmasters. The current cellarmaster, Pierrette Trichet - the only female "master blender" at a major cognac firm - works with casks selected by her predecessors, and in return selects young brandies that will only be blended and bottled decades after she has retired. Every year, around
3% of the cognac stored in cask evaporates, over time a staggering loss - for every litre of spirit originally put in cask, only 33cl - a third - survives to eventually be bottled.
Paul-Emile Remy Martin was also responsible for the remarkable and distinctive bottle, emblazoned with a fleur de lis and
with spiky the town of Cognac. Since 1937 the decanters have been exclusively made in crystal by Baccarat (each is thus
signed on the base). Prior to this they were made at the equally famous St Louis glassworks.
