Rémy Martin has spent three hundred years doing one thing with unusual discipline: making Cognac only from the two finest crus of the region. That single-minded focus, marked by the centaur on every bottle, gives it a house style of real richness and depth. This is a full guide to Rémy Martin and the range we stock at House of Decant.

Founded by the winegrower Rémy Martin in 1724, the house made an early and lasting decision to source its eaux-de-vie almost entirely from Grande Champagne and Petite Champagne, the two chalkiest, most prized growing areas at the heart of Cognac. A blend drawn only from these two crus earns the special designation Fine Champagne Cognac, and it is the foundation of everything Rémy makes.

Why the Crus Matter

In Cognac, as in wine, place is everything. The chalk soils of Grande and Petite Champagne produce eaux-de-vie of exceptional finesse and ageing potential, floral and long-lived, and they are the reason Rémy's Cognacs feel so rounded and complete. Where a bigger house blends across the whole region for consistency, Rémy narrows its focus to the best ground and lets that quality speak.

The Range We Stock

The VSOP is the house's calling card and one of the benchmarks of the category, built entirely from those two crus: smooth, rounded and full of vanilla, ripe apricot and baking spice, superb neat or in a cocktail. The XO is the grand statement, a blend of hundreds of eaux-de-vie, the oldest around four decades in cask, layered with candied fruit, hazelnut, cigar box and a long, velvety finish. Above them sits the legendary Louis XIII, the summit of the house.

How to Drink It

The VSOP is wonderfully versatile: pour it neat over a single large cube, or use it to lift a Sidecar or a Sazerac. The XO belongs in a tulip glass at room temperature, sipped slowly after dinner and given time to open. As with all fine Cognac, skip the old ritual of warming the glass over a flame, which only burns off the delicate aromatics you paid for.

For the whole category explained, from VS to XO, see our Cognac buyer's guide, and for the other great house we stock, read our profile of Hennessy.

Three centuries of drawing only on the best ground has given Rémy Martin a richness and a consistency that are all its own. The centaur on the label is a fitting emblem: half wild, half refined, and unmistakably itself.