Cognac Houses That Are Not as Popular But Deserve Recognition

There aren’t many who haven’t heard the name of big cognac brands such as Hennessy, Courvoisier, Martell, Remy Martin, etc. However, there are many who don’t know that there exists many other small cognac houses that have yet to gain the attention from the market as the big brands do.These major brands take up more than 60% of the cognac market and as a result smaller brands and cognac houses can’t get the word out much often. One of the reasons being there isn’t enough money to compete with big brands to be heard and known. Many smaller brands as a result are forced to merge in with bigger brands or always be known to locals without really getting their name out in the international market. Le-cognac has been helping smaller brands out and we think we should help out as well being one of the most read and visited cognac blogs on the web. Below you will find five cognac houses and links where you can see their products and learn more about them. Please click on the image to learn about their products. We’ve also included a short excerpt from each site’s page to give you an idea.

Larsen

The Larsen firm was founded in 1926 by Jens-Reidar Larsen, a young Norwegian, who arrived in Bordeaux in 1919. He settled shortly afterwards in Cognac, charmed by the inimitable atmosphere of the small Charentes town and there, discovered the refinement of its famous eau-de-vie. Having become a fine connoisseur, and driven by an innate business insight, he bought the small firm of Cognac Joseph Gautier. He then launched his own “Larsen” brand which soon prospered on Scandinavian markets, particularly in Norway.

Thorin

André Thorin’s son Claude and his wife Nathalie work on the family property (domaine) that has 36 hectares of vines situated in the Grande Champagne 1 Cru de Cognac. The Domaine offers an exceptional, rare and very old Pineau des Charentes. It is also distinguished by the development of very special Cognacs.

Petit

About 1850, Mr. Goulard, the grandfather of my grandmother, was a weaver. He lived and worked among the vineyards of Cognac. He built a distillery and with a good advice of his cousin, a worker in the Hennessy distillery, he produced the famous alcohol with a prestigious name: Cognac. Time went by, with its good and bad years (wars, vineyard troubles – phylloxera and mildew). In 1921, the vineyard took the name of PETIT at my grandmother’s marriage to Albert Petit. In 1965, my father André Petit decided to stop his contract with the house of Hennessy to sell his own bottled product.

Louis Bouron

Le Château de la Grange is a family owned Cognac producing company founded by Louis Bouron in 1832. It is one of the oldest Cognac domaine in France having remained in the same family for 5 generations.

L&L

The L&L Company produces and markets a certain number of products, for which the notion of Blending remains the main difficulty to master. Whether it be for our liqueurs, cocktails, or our Cognacs, the level of quality which has been reached is directly proportional to the care we pay to the selection, not only of the various eaux-de-vie but also of the different fruit. This requires the total involvement in all the phases of distillation and aging along with permanent research into new flavors.

Hopefully we were able to introduce you to some new cognac brands and that there are more options than what I see through advertisements day in and day out. Now you know that there are more cognac houses and cognac brands than just the four major ones that we hear each day. If you would like to add more to the list please feel free to do so.

Related posts:

1. The Cognac Guild : A Group Of Independently Owned Cognac Houses
2. Miami Cognac 2009 – June 11, 12 and 13
3. Hennessy & Courvoisier : A Brief History
4. Hennessy, Courvoisier and Martell : The Rich History
5. 5 Cognac Brands You May Not Know Of

4 Responses to “Cognac Houses That Are Not as Popular But Deserve Recognition”

1. Chantal .F. Martell says:

   October 20, 2009 at 8:39 pm

   Thanks for giving the small cognac houses the recognition we indeed believe they deserve! Those you have mentionned, along with some 20 to 30 more, are exceptional artisans fighting to keep their brand and name alive. In one single boittle of cognac enters the history of 2 toi 3 generations. It is all a very strong human story and on their behalf, we say MERCI!
2. admin says:

   October 21, 2009 at 1:12 am

   Hi Chantal, thanks for stopping by. We are all for helping smaller brands here at cognac.com. As one of the leading cognac sites on the internet we want to help small cognac houses out and give them more exposure. If you would like to send us a list of more (we have researched a few but might have missed some) please feel free to do so using our contact page. We would love to cover them as often as possible.
3. Anonymous Cognac Producer says:

   October 23, 2009 at 8:07 pm

   Nothing to say about Larsen and Thorin cognac: they are known to be serious cognac houses.

   But :

   - Louis Bouron seems stopped making cognac.
   - L&L is not a house to take for example whereas its recent history…

   Your web site is very fine. You choose to talk about a prodigious product: thank you to work hard to allways improve the quality of information!
4. Bache fan says:

   January 1, 2010 at 11:57 pm

   Bache-Gabrielsen/Dupuy has been winning some major awards lately. Great stuff.