Tonight, clearing out the bottom drawers in the china cabinet I came across a photograph of Her Indoors that was taken on our visit to Remy Martin Cellars in Cognac many years ago.
In this she is savouring a particularly pleasant aged cognac- Louis XIII. HERE
I represented the brand in New Zealand at the time and we had a day visiting the manufacturing facility, the barrel halls and Seguin Moreau cooperage. At the end of the day we were hosted in the tasting room (above).
I particularly remember the occasion not ony because it is a wonderful facility and a great brand but because of that typical French arrogance and chauvinism. When hosted at the bar we were given over to a young and pompous marketer who assumed that antipodeans knew bugger all about their fine cognacs. When he was about to go through his spiel I told hiim to line the offerings up (6 of them at different gradings) in a random order and to do so blind. When he did so in a set for her and a set for me I waited. He was expecting me to try first and had his rehearsal ready but I nodded to Her Indoors who sniffed and tasted the drinks in turn. She correctly identified VSOP, Club and XO and pushed two aside which she said she was unfamiliar with (they were blends that were only available in Europe). The last glass she held on to and savoured. She said to Mr Pompous "This is my favourite - Louis Treize".
Mr Pompous did a double take and then excused himself and disappeared out back.
I smiled at Her Indoors and set about tasting my set of cognacs. Soon one of the big wigs we hadn't seen during the day and the resident Master of wine showed up and began to chat. Obviously the marketing guy had told them that these Nouvelle Zealandaise were serious.
We enjoyed some more hospitality, declined a lift back to Bordeaux and made our way back to the train station.
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