A $3,000 Cognac: Meet Remy Martin's Cellar Master

For those of you who enjoy a good cognac, the name Remy Martin is a familiar one. The storied luxury spirit brand has a new cellar master, only the fifth in the house's long history, which dates back to 1724. And cellar master Baptiste Lussot joins us now. Baptiste, thank you so much for being with us. Pleasure. As a cellar master, what exactly is your role? My role is to take care of this prestigious house brand like Remy Martin and Louis XIII. That is to say, to respect the style of the house. So I'm in charge of being the partner with the growers who grow the grapes, who make the wine, who make the distillation. So I'm doing the selection of the best eau de vie we have in the cognac region. I make also the blending after the aging to be sure that people who enjoy Remy and Louis will remain the same year after year. So you get to taste each new batch and make sure it meets the specifications. Exactly. Fantastic. And tell us, you brought the crown jewel of Remy Martin with you. Tell us about what you brought. I brought a decanter of Louis XIII with the XIII, which is really an amazing cognac because it's really, it has been made since 1874. How is it made? Tell us about the process. Cognac is only made in the cognac region. So when you have a glass of cognac, you have a part of this tiny southwest region of France. So it's where we grow grapes, white grapes. We make white wine. And after, it's a question of double distillation. So we obtain what we call water of life. In French, it's eau de vie. I like that kind of water. Because it's really pure and it's a concentration of aromas you have in the grapes and in the wine. So this eau de vie after will go into aging in oak cask. And it will be the role of the cellar master every year to make the blend to have this consistency. And the aroma is so lovely. Can we taste? Yeah, of course. Cheers. Thank you so much. Salud. I love the way it smells. It's so wonderful. Tell us, how is the spirits industry doing right now? Is it? It's doing really well. Yeah. Really well in the U.S. Yeah. Fantastic. And cognac specifically? Cognac specifically. Because really, people are really aware of this craftsmanship, this heritage we have behind the brand. So speaking about Ruitre's, it's speaking about four generation of cellar master over 100 years to craft each decanter. So it's blending eau de vie. The youngest one is younger than me. Amazing. And you've managed to keep your hold on the industry. I understand that Remy Martin has, what, 80% of the cognac industry? Is that right? Yeah. In fact, we are only taking the best grapes because the region is divided into different terroirs. Right. And we only use the two first terroirs. So we are really said to be, for Remy Martin, the specialist of the finned champagne cognac. But for Ruitre, it's even better because we use only the first terroir, the first cru, which is Grand Champagne. Well, after all that buildup, we have to have a taste, right? Oh, let's try. Really, you have a lot of aromas. It's really lovely. So smooth. And the concentration of time. Having a glass of Ruitre is having this wonderful terroir of Grand Champagne shining all over the world. This is meant to sit, enjoy, spend some time. Exactly. I love it. Thank you so much, Baptiste. It was such a pleasure. Thanks for being on the show. It was a pleasure for me, too. Cheers. Thank you.