Le Cognac de PAUL L57 - Tresors de famille - Cognac PASQUET

We selected this unique cask distilled by Paul Gaillard and conserved by his son, Raymond and daughter-in-law Bernadette, and subsequently by his granddaughter, Carole, until this past year. The vineyard and distillery have been in Carole’s family since at least the middle of the 19th century, but no one is sure of when they acquired the property. What is certain is that Paul married Rénée, the only daughter of the owner, in the 1923. His father-in-law had been the gentleman farmer, being the mayor of the town as well.

Paul took over immediately and farmed the five original hectares of vines in Grande and Petite Champagne and twenty-odd hectares of grain until he could no longer do it in 1981, at nearly eighty years of age. Until the early 1960s, he spent every winter sleeping in the distillery to be woken by the sound of the pot falling from the swan’s neck to alert him to the first liquid coming through the still. Many changes in the appellation began during this period and Paul embraced them, as he did so many others.

As yields rose nearly exponentially, he decided to have his wines distilled by a nearby professional distillery and had his five hectoliter wood and charcoal-burning still dismounted, just as he had purchased one of the first tractors in the village and had electricity and running water installed as soon as he could.

Paul hailed from Nersac, between here in Eraville and Angoûleme. He was the first of two sons from a good family there. Carole, his granddaughter, who we interviewed for these insights into his life and how he made cognac, said that he was rather mysterious about his family and that she hardly knew them. He had certainly lived through some difficult times, being a teenager during the First World War and having the Second at his doorstep in his forties.

He kept these casks of some of the last vintages that he distilled himself as a war chest against hard times that he knew could come. His son, Raymond, did the same in his father’s stead. Carole expressed how hard it is to let go of these precious eaux-de-vie curated throughout the decades by three generations of her family, but her closing words, “he would have been so proud” to have seen his own bottle, are simply heartwarming.

We are delighted that Carole has allowed us to share her grandfather’s life and treasure with you. She has added eighthectares to the original vineyards now and it will be some years before she can think about retirement, but perhaps her son will, one day, take her place at La Roche. Paul’s single cask needed no reduction.