RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

The House of Martell was founded in 1715 by Jean Martell during the height of Art de Vivre, the French lifestyle philosophy that infuses daily life with know-how, creativity and substance. As the oldest of the great cognac houses, the Martell family has spent the last three centuries passing down the passion and knowledge of blending only the finest cognacs meant to be enjoyed and cherished for generations.

To celebrate its landmark 300th anniversary in 2015, Martell decided it would be fitting to pay tribute to its origins, which led to the release of the Martell Premier Voyage. This limited edition bottle was inspired by the maison’s founder, Jean Martell’s first expedition around the cognac region in his quest to discover the best eaux de vie (literally ‘water of life’, a fruit brandy made by fermentation and distillation). The onerous task of capturing the essence of the founder’s story was handed to Martell’s cellar master, Benoît Fil.

“The Premier Voyage project actually began in 2011 as we wanted to celebrate Martell’s 300th anniversary in a big way,” he says. “We decided to revisit the archives to track down the documents from Jean Martell’s time. With the help of an archivist, we managed to locate commercial letters which Martell had stored inside a letter book, and also discovered a purchase book which contained all the detailed information on the eaux de vie that he had bought back then.”

Based on Jean Martell’s most frequent purchases, Fil was able to retrace his footsteps to key suppliers located in 10 villages. This ultimately led to an even more surprising discovery. “The 18 eaux de vie that had been selected to create the Premier Voyage were sourced from families who had already been practising viticulture and grape growing during Jean Martell’s time. When we drew them out on the map, we realised these places he was frequenting were the same ones from which we are still sourcing our eaux de vie. So, even back then, Martell was already focused on the quality of the blends.”

The next challenge for the cellar master was to blend the eaux de vie to create the Premier Voyage. “As with any cognac I make, the ultimate goal is to always bring out the best of the blend to create a smooth, well-rounded taste with the widest palette of aromas,” says Fil. “Each eau de vie has its own personality in terms of taste and aroma. The challenge is to ensure that none of the eaux de vie would overpower the blend, while also bringing out their individual characteristics. It should basically taste like a medley in your mouth.”

“In many ways, blending cognac is like art. Whenever we create a new blend, we must start with an idea of what we want to achieve before selecting from thousands of eaux de vie in order to create the final masterpiece,” Fil explains. “This is why Martell decided to collaborate with French contemporary artist Bernar Venet to design the base of the crystal decanter for the Premier Voyage. In a way, this helps to create a kind of adequation between what is inside the decanter and its final presentation.”

It is because of this delicate and intricate process that the production of the Premier Voyage will be limited to just 300 bottles – two of which have already been auctioned off during the tricentenaire celebrations held at Genting International Convention Centre for an astounding MYR62,888 per bottle. When asked why Martell decided to kickstart its celebrations in Malaysia, the cellar master says: “Malaysia is a very important market for Martell. Seeing as the recent Chinese New Year celebrations are considered to be quite significant here, timing it with Martell’s own celebrations is a way to make it even more memorable.”

As for Fil’s journey into becoming a cellar master for the cognac house, it all began seven years ago. “When I first arrived at Martell, my predecessors were already working on the L’Or de Jean Martell, a great cognac with more than 300 different eaux de vie – some of which have been stored for over a century. I had the opportunity to finalise this blend, which ended up becoming a significant product in Martell’s range.”

“As for the most important moment in my career, it would have to be the making of the Premier Voyage. For me, this is the highest quality cognac that has been made since I first started out with the company,” he states. “The overall experience has been very interesting, especially the parts that involved exploring the archives to further understand the history of Martell in depth. The knowledge that I have gained in making this extraordinary cognac has been the most memorable to date. Now, when I think about the Premier Voyage, I think about all the things that have led the House of Martell to become what it is today. You could say it is almost like stepping back in time.”

On what the future holds at the maison, Fil says he intends to continue preserving its heritage. “My role, which is to preserve and maintain the quality of the cognac, remains the same as it was centuries ago. Not only must I ensure that what we are creating today continues to be in line with the standards set by my predecessors, but also that these treasures we are still collecting are of the highest quality and ready to be passed down to the next generation of cellar masters. This is a very big responsibility, and we must ensure we can go on for at least another 300 years or more!” he adds with a grin.