Where most Cognac houses begin with the youngest VS classification, Delamain’s entry level is XO – and it’s an XO that far exceeds the minimum age requirement of 10 years. ‘Grande Champagne at 10 years is not ready,’ says Charles Braastad, Delamain’s cellar master, who represents the ninth generation of the family. ‘At Delamain, you will have to double that.’

To manipulate the eaux-de-vie and create a multiplicity of options for the cellar master, Delamain has 12 different ageing cellars dotted around the area surrounding its Jarnac home, each with its own microclimate of temperature and humidity. In the decades that a spirit can spend maturing there, these small variations create a whole palette of different flavour hues.

Such complex variations find expression in Delamain’s Pléiade range, a rolling programme of single-cask or single-origin Cognacs that wear their provenance on their front labels, with a feast of geeky information from ABV to vineyard location, cellaring conditions and bottling date.

With Pléiade, you can compare the angular power of steep-sloped Bouteville with the supple charm of rolling Verrières, alongside the contrasting style of an ‘early landed’ Cognac, one shipped in cask to the UK to mature in much colder, damper conditions – ‘a French Cognac with an English education,’ as recently retired cellar master Dominique Touteau puts it.

Pléiade was launched on the eve of lockdown in 2020 – hardly ideal timing – and the original, three-tier range is now being refined into a trio of annual releases: one from La Rambaudie, the vineyard Delamain manages in Malaville; a single-vintage Cognac; and a single-cask expression.

For its bicentenary, Delamain is also releasing not one but two remarkable Cognacs: L’Oiseau Rare, an hors d’âge Cognac put together by Touteau over the course of his 40-year Delamain career; and L’Édition Rare du Bicentenaire, a marriage of five rare Cognacs taken from glass dames-jeannes. The five years in question – 1893, 1914, 1947, 1965 and 1969 – respectively pay tribute to a different Delamain generation: Jean Delamain, Noël Sauzey, Alain Braastad, Patrick Peyrelongue and – for 1969 – Charles Braastad and Dominique Touteau, who also finalised the blend. ‘These very good Cognacs have a feisty personality that means that they don’t always go very well together – it’s hard to find the balance,’ says Braastad. ‘So, this is a blend that needed two cellar masters.’

Only 200 bottles of L’Édition Rare will be available worldwide from December 2024, priced at €6,000 per 70cl bottle. Meanwhile, a 10-litre dame-jeanne, featuring ornate decoration by Paris goldsmith Goossens, will be auctioned by Bonhams between 19 November and 6 December, with a pre-sale estimate of €100,000–€200,000.