Pierre Ferrand Original 1840 Cognac (700 ml)

In 2011, Alexandre Gabriel and cocktail historian David Wondrich reverse-engineered a surviving 1840 bottle of Pinet-Castillon Cognac to create the first modern spirit explicitly designed to restore the category's pre-Prohibition cocktail identity — a deliberate act of category transgression at a time when Cognac houses were competing on age statements and gift-box prestige. The fruit originates entirely from Logis d'Angeac, a co-owned 100-hectare estate in the Angeac-Champagne commune of Grande Champagne AOC — the Premier Cru de Cognac — where marine fossil limestone soils of extreme chalkiness drive high natural acidity in the Ugni Blanc base wine, the structural backbone that survives double distillation intact. Distillation runs slowly in unusually small 25 hl copper pot stills with onion-shaped heads, conducted on unfiltered fine lees to maximise aromatic concentration — a deliberate inefficiency that larger houses abandoned decades ago. Aging proceeds across seven cellars at Château de Bonbonnet, where dry cement-floored cellars (30–60% humidity) and earthen-floored humid cellars (70–100% humidity) are used in combination to build contrasting textural layers before blending. Bottled at 45% ABV (90 proof) — higher than the Cognac category norm — the 1840 Formula is the only expression in the Pierre Ferrand range engineered specifically to hold its aromatic structure when diluted over ice or in a long cocktail. The chalky Grande Champagne minerality and elevated proof together produce a cognac that functions as both a sipping spirit and a cocktail-grade ingredient without compromise.