Popcorn and cognac? Leave it to a former professional basketball player to score a slam dunk with unexpected pairings.
I’m seated at a six-person table at the Château de Chanteloup, a historic residence of the Martell family. Usually closed to the public, it’s got gilded clocks, sculpted fireplaces, and a welcome committee of impossibly cute deer grazing on the lawn. The table — with courtside views of the kitchen action — transforms into an artistic tableau with dozens of dishes. I can’t take my eyes off the plate of golden bottarga crumb, cradling a glazed mussel, which looks like the sun’s orb. Yet it’s the crunch of decorative popcorn — sometimes made from seaweed, sometimes from puffed einkorn kernels — that elevates the flavors of the amber spirit that French author Victor Hugo called “the liquor of the gods.”
This culinary extravaganza is the Signature Martell by Alexandre Mazzia, and the chef in question is a former pro athlete. The creative force behind the three Michelin-starred AM restaurant in Marseille, Mazzia turns up the volume with spices and smoky flavors influenced by his childhood in the Republic of the Congo. He met Christophe Valtaud, Martell cellar master, when the Michelin Guide ceremony was staged in Cognac, France, in 2022, and the two hit it off. Not only does Mazzia’s wildly inventive cuisine go nicely with cognac, but the chef grew up visiting his grandparents nearby. The land-and-sea bounty of the Charentais terroir is something he’s long wanted to share with the world. And so the two hatched a game plan.
Wow, have things changed since I first visited Cognac some 20 years ago. The town (population approximately 20,000) has never been short on charm, its chateau and turreted towers flanking the picturesque Charente river, not far from the Atlantic coast in western France. There was a sleepy, forgotten-in-time quality to it. And a vibe that once felt closed to outsiders — an interesting dichotomy considering that nearly 98% of cognac is exported internationally, mostly to China and the U.S. Hence the home of the world-famous spirit, immortalized in chart-topping pop and rap songs, is fairly unknown to its international fans.
“Accessibility has always been a challenge for tourism,” affirms Alexandre Combescot de Marsaguet, Martell’s global brand ambassador, noting its location away from the major train lines and highways. Travelers exploring the Bordeaux wine region would often bypass Cognac completely on their way to the Loire Valley — never mind that Cognac sits in the biggest white wine vineyard in France. The lack of lodgings didn’t help.
On my return visits over the years, I’ve marveled at the investment in tourism, by the cognac houses and the town. The riverside quays got a glow up, as did the Porte Saint-Jacques, the monumental vestige of the medieval ramparts that now offers a visitor space. Also restored: the Château de Cognac, the birthplace of King François I and nowadays home to Baron Otard and d’Ussé cognacs (Jay-Z’s brand). It was originally built in the 10th century as a fortress to protect against Viking invaders, and tours show off the incredible vaulted rooms which you can even rent out for your own fête. (Imagine the ragers that the Renaissance monarch organized for his court, artists, and scientists.)
Rooftop bars are serving up cognac cocktails that are a throwback to the original Jazz Age classics like the Sidecar. There are drink innovations, too, with a cognac twist. Crowning the Fondation Martell, a contemporary art venue, the Indigo Rooftop Bar serves up panoramic views with drinks like the Fine à l’Eau, made with Martell VSOP, verjus, simple syrup, and sparkling water. Mixologist Rémy Savage, the minimalist maestro who’s shaken up the cocktail scene at hot spots like Bar Nouveau in Paris, created the cognac cocktail menu as the Martell ambassador.
And then came the hotels. Cognac’s first five-star address, the Hôtel Chais Monnet was one of France’s biggest hospitality projects of 2018, with a price tag of 65 million euros (about $77 million), transforming the Monnet family’s historic cognac warehouses into a spa and culinary destination. (The Michelin-starred restaurant Les Foudres is set amid massive wood barrels — so big they were air-lifted in by helicopter). This was followed in 2023 by La Nauve, a design-centric address next to the Charente that was one of my favorite hotel discoveries last year. Housed inside a former cognac distillery and merchant’s mansion, this 12-room retreat is surrounded by gardens planted with orchards, aromatic herbs, and heirloom vegetables. This is the playground for chef Anthony Carballo, whose passion for fresh-picked produce is translated into artistry on the plate. The gourmet Notes restaurant is complemented by the more casual Brasserie des Flâneurs that’s loved by locals.
Needless to say, Cognac is worth a detour for its food. Beyond the next-level dining experiences, you can get insights into regional specialties on a tour with Food Aventura. Capitalizing on the global boom in culinary tourism, Pauline Vivent launched her business in 2024 as a means of sharing insights about her region’s gourmet treats and the artisans behind them: the cheesemakers, the duck farmers, the winemakers. “Cognac is a town best discovered by walking,” she says. “We share good local addresses beyond the cognac houses, including a specialty coffee roaster.”
Of course, when in Cognac, connoisseurs of the brandy can geek out with tastings, blending workshops, and discovery tours. Small independent houses have flung open their doors with creative activities (like escape games) alongside the robust welcome offered by the Big Four (Hennessy, Martell, Courvoisier, and Rémy Martin).
Since I attended the 2018 inauguration of Hennessy’s Les Visites, a visitor circuit complete with a riverboat tour, the house has upped the ante with a virtual-reality experience and the opening of the cooperage, where expert artisans show off the ancestral craft of barrel-making in a wood-lined, cathedral-like space that’s so gorgeous it could be an art gallery. David Morandière, a long-time cooper awarded the prestigious “Meilleur Ouvrier de France” (best craftsmen) award, oversees a dozen coopers. Their goal isn’t to make all the barrels that Hennessy needs in a year — only 500 are made out of the 30,000-35,000 the house requires — but to keep alive a traditional savoir-faire and the skillset to restore the 70-year barrels used in aging the rarest brandies. As a result of initiatives like this, Hennessy maintains the “Living Heritage Company” designation it was awarded in 2010.
“There were wood barrels before the time of Jesus,” explains cooper Jean-Baptiste Montigaud. He demonstrates the entire barrel-making process, from the wood selection and maturation (fundamental for the development of colors and aromas when aging cognac) to the use of ancient tools like the adze. Oh and the toasting of the barrel? He has to manage the fire so the barrel chars nicely, bending the staves, without going up in flames. “It looks like a lot of physical exertion, but the real work is the precision,” he says later, using a compass to make geometric calculations.
It’s this care for craft that’s my biggest takeaway from trips to Cognac. At Martell, the oldest house (1715), the archives stretch for more than three miles. Founder Jean Martell crisscrossed the countryside to meet with winegrowers, learn about the terroir, and establish a supply network for his eau-de-vie — some of these same families continue to work with Martell today. Purchase orders are safeguarded, along with original dinner menus starring Martell (the 1936 maiden voyage of the Queen Mary, the 1977 inaugural flight of the Concorde).
The archives extend to Martell’s reserve of eau-de-vie. Some 10,000 to 12,000 samples are waiting to be blended, like a fine perfume, by cellar master Christophe Valtaud in an atelier that looks like a luxurious lab — a setting that’s only fitting for this ninth-generation cellar master who has a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology.
“When you taste the eau-de-vie from 1802, created before Napoleon was emperor of France, you get goosebumps,” Valtaud says. He chooses his team based on their ability to taste — as many as 70 samples in a day. To create Martell Cordon Bleu, among the top-selling XO cognacs globally, they must replicate the taste of the original that was launched in Monte Carlo in 1912. His mission is two-fold: to blend today’s cognacs and to make eau-de-vie to be blended decades in the future.
“I’m not working for myself but the next generation of cellar masters,” he says.