Cognac, by the cru.

France · Cognac · since 1976 (brand); 1635 (family on the property) Paul Giraud

Ten generations of Girauds in Bouteville, in the heart of Grande Champagne — Cognac's first growth. The family has farmed the property father-to-son since 1635 and made eaux-de-vie continuously across the lineage. The current Paul Giraud Cognac brand was set up by Paul-Jean Giraud and his father in the mid-1970s, with first commercial bottling in 1976. Paul-Jean (b. 1952) now passes the operation to his son Paul, the eleventh generation.

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France · Cognac · since 1880 Jean Fillioux

Twenty-five hectares of Grande Champagne vineyards around Domaine de la Pouyade — the estate Jean Fillioux acquired in 1894, and the production base ever since. Honore Fillioux founded the house in 1880; the family produces only from its own grapes, distilled and aged on-site. Christophe Fillioux took over from his father Pascal in 2015 as the fifth generation.

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France · Cognac · since 1875 Francois Voyer

Seventy hectares of Grande Champagne, distilled and bottled in-house — Francois Voyer operates as a single-estate producer. The Chauchet-Voyer family had been growing vines in Verrieres and Ambleville since the French Revolution; Francois Voyer formalised the Cognac brand in 1875. The estate now includes 8 hectares of Grande Champagne 1er Cru around Saint-Meme-les-Carrieres.

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France · Cognac · since 1872 Normandin Mercier

Five generations on, the great-great-grandson Edouard Normandin runs the operation. Cognac Normandin-Mercier was set up in 1872 by Jules Normandin in La Rochelle, with financial backing from his wife Justine Mercier — the surname pair is where the compound name comes from.

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France · Cognac · since 1999 Grosperrin

Cognac Grosperrin was set up in 1999 by Jean Grosperrin, frustrated by exceptional batches being absorbed into mass-market blends. Jean — twenty years in the Cognac trade as a distiller and broker — began bottling rare casks under his own label as Cognac de Collection, vintage-specific cask-strength single-batch releases. His son Guilhem took over in 2004 at age 23.

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France · Cognac · since 1776 (family on the land); 1946 Dudognon

Folle Blanche and Montils replanted after phylloxera-era abandonment, alongside the standard Ugni Blanc — that is the 10-hectare Lignieres-Sonneville estate Claudine Dudognon now runs with her husband Gerald Buraud and son Pierre. The family has farmed grapes in the Grande Champagne village since 1776, with the current estate acquired in 1852, and began bottling under their own name in 1946 under Raymond Dudognon.

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France · Cognac · since 1808 (original); revived in modern form by Frederic Mestreau

Active 1808 to 1919, closed in the wake of WWI, revived a century later from 250 bottles. Guilhem Grosperrin (director of Cognac Grosperrin) acquired Abel Mestreau's personal collection of early-nineteenth-century eaux-de-vie, used those bottles to profile the original house style, and revived the Mestreau brand using modern Cognacs matched to that profile.

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France · Cognac · since 1888 Frapin

Two hundred and forty hectares around Chateau de Fontpinot, almost entirely planted to Ugni Blanc — Cognac Frapin is a Grande Champagne family estate at Segonzac, with vine-growing records in the Frapin family going back to 1270.

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