De Luze Cognac

It is interesting to witness such an international history in a cognac house. Of course, many of the big cognac players have developed huge international acclaim and distribute widely all over the world. But De Luze in fact came into existence through an international set-up right at the beginning, which was rather unsual for a French company in the 19th century. In 1817, the two brothers Alfred and Louis-Philippe De Luze took off to New York to build up business relations in America. After setting up shop, they realized that it would be more productive if one of them actually was based in the cognac region in order to build up a strong export/import business. So Alfred returned to Bordeaux and founded the cognac house De Luze & Fils with his sons, a company dealing in Bordeaux wine and cognac and distributing via his brother's agency in New York. This went on for 40 years during which they set up a strong network within Europe as well.

By 1862 business was flourishing, and Alfred and his family bought the Chateau Paveil, situated in the best Bordeaux wine growing area of Margaux. They also acquired the Domaine de Chaine, located in Cognac's prime growing area, the Grande Champagne. It was De Luze's philosophy to focus on only the best quality produce in order to create number one cognac and wine.

De Luze was purchased in 2006 by the Boinaud Family of Angeac Champagne. Wine-growers exploiting an Estate of 410 ha of Grande Champagne vines, owners of Cognac's biggest private distillery, 41 pot-stills, and tracing their history back to 1640 at Le Bois d'Angeac (hence their family name Boinaud, or Bois-naud, man from the forest), the Boinaud Family is one of the oldest and most respected Cognac producing families of the Appellation.

De Luze have a very particular philosophy, believing in high and pure quality. The cognac house distills only the unfiltered wines to get the thick texture, and they have a higher percentage of Grande Champagne in their Fine Champagne blends, to give a "3D taste profile" (flowers, fruit and spices). They refuse to add the caramel to guarantee the natural taste, texture and colour of the ensemble.

Recent awards include a Gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2010, and Silver medals at International Wine & Spirit Competition award in 2010 and the Internationaler Spirituosen Wettbewerb award in 2009.

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