36 HOURS ENSCONCED IN COGNAC

Château de Bagnolet is only open by invite to Hennessy's closest celebrity friends and top buyers; we find out how it continues to play an important role in the house of cognac's identity 

- Gavin Yeung

The first thing you learn about cognac is that it’s made from eau de vie, by definition a colourless, unaged fruit brandy whose name translates literally to “water of life”. It’s easy to draw parallels between this evocative term and the sleepy town of Cognac that gave the more familiar spirit its name, found in the bucolic heart of the Gallic countryside through which the Charente river—the languid body of water that gives this fertile region life and which King François I is said to have dubbed “the most beautiful river in the kingdom”—wends its way.

Sitting on the riverbank at the apex of the Charente’s northward bulge above the town of Cognac is the Château de Bagnolet, the former estate of the Hennessy family and the brand’s current home. Despite the monumental reach of the house of Hennessy, which in 2022 sold a staggering 94.3 million bottles of cognac, the château itself is a relatively modest structure. Built in 1810, its humble, two-storey form was inspired by the colonial estates the US state of Louisiana, with a veranda that opens onto nearly three hectares of immaculately  kept grounds and a white-washed exterior that gleams brilliantly amid the picture-perfect verdancy of the Cognaçaise landscape.

Up until the 1970s, the château served as the private residence of the Hennessy family—a closed world of aristocratic luxury and witness to many an internecine squabble as the then-family-owned firm transitioned into a corporate entity with Moët, later merging with the Louis Vuitton behemoth; today it is a sanctum to which Hennesy’s most valued friends and customers are invited for a privileged glimpse into the very soul of the brand.