An Unwritten Legacy: Rémy Martin’s Baptiste Loiseau

May 31, 2017

Baptiste Loiseau is writing his own story, but he won’t be able to see how it ends. Loiseau is Cellar Master for the House of Rémy Martin and what he does today in that role will forever shape the brand’s future. Each eaux-de-vie he selects, every barrel of aged spirit he pulls from and how he responds to large-scale issues like climate change will not only impact Rémy Martin, but also the entire region of Cognac, for generations to come.

As the youngest cellar master in Cognac’s history, Loiseau finds himself at a unique moment in Rémy Martin’s story. Very few cellar masters start out as young as he did, which gives him plenty of time to plan for what’s to come. He may not be able to predict the future, but Loiseau knows that change is on the horizon, and how he reacts to it will determine his legacy.

How have you seen the Cognac industry change since taking over as Rémy Martin’s Cellar Master in 2014?
Baptiste Loiseau: Since taking the position, I have seen more and more people become interested in the brown spirits category. People are more aware of the [production process] and they’re asking more technical questions than ever before, because they really want to understand how we make Fine Champagne Cognac and the craft behind it.

The concept of “craft” in the spirits industry is hard to define. How does Rémy Martin fit into this increasingly “craft-focused” industry?
If you go back to the starting point for Rémy Martin in 1724, it was already a crafted spirit. We were dealing with a wine grower, Rémy Martin, who created the brand.

Behind the term craft, we can have many, many meanings. What I am focusing on are the craftsmen who make Rémy Martin: The wine growers, the distillers and even myself as the blender. Craft, to me, is this link between the different craftsmen, and how they each must master their own skills to manage this terroir.

How is climate change affecting the Cognac region?
Climate change of course affects the quality of each year’s vintage. We’ve certainly had to adapt as of late, especially with how to grow the grapes and when to harvest them.  By now our farmers have learned that they need to adapt to climate changes every year, and so they are harvesting earlier and earlier.

For the past 15 years, global warming has been affecting the ripeness of the grapes. So we have adapted. My fear is that, maybe in 20 or 30 years, the change will be too severe and too difficult to adapt to. So we are already doing some experiments and researching new varieties of white grapes that will be able to prosper in what’s to come. Developing these new grapes will take time, however, as we will still need to distill and then age the eaux-de-vie, to see if it will maintain the “style of the house.” We started planting some of these grapes two years ago, but we know it will take 10-15 years to see how they do in the aging process.

A lot of the eaux-de-vie you are selecting and cellaring now is destined for future generations of Cellar Masters to actually blend. Is that something you reflect on often?
I don’t think about that too much. When you take the position of Cellar Master in the Cognac region, you know you are dealing with time. You know that you are not the one to have your name on the label. It is not the 1738 or XO by Baptiste. It is 1738 or XO by Rémy Martin.

Most of the time, when you select an eaux-de-vie, you know that you will not be the one who will make the final blend. It is really a part of the mission and I am comfortable with that.

What for me is different compared to the previous cellar masters, is that I took the position at a very young age, which means I will have the chance to select the eaux-de-vie for some of our core pillars, and then actually be able to finish the blend in 10 or 15 years. I will have the chance to follow the aging much longer than the previous two generations of cellar masters. There have been only 5 generations of Cellar Masters in the history of The House of Rémy Martin.

When you decide to step down and hand over the reigns as cellar master, what do you hope to have accomplished?
My main goal will be to have ensured the quality of the range. It will be a success if the next generation’s cellar master—he or she—has all of the diversity in the cellars to maintain the quality of Rémy Martin that has endured for generations. I don’t want to be the cellar master who killed one of those core brands.

The second one is to create at least one new product, not a limited edition, but a pillar of the range. If I can be the one who creates the next pillar of the range, it would be, for me, something I can be incredibly proud of as I will have been able to add my story to Rémy Martin’s history.

In the U.S. there is a surge of interesting brown spirits, especially bourbon and rye whiskey. How do you bring those American whiskey consumers over to Cognac?
Most of the time when people ask me that question, I try to go back to the roots and the terroir. I want to help people understand the difference between the whiskey category and Cognac. So I go back to the roots and to the grapes. With Cognac we are dealing with grapes, not grain. When you decide to become a wine grower in the Cognac region and plant a vineyard, it is at least a 40-year commitment. It is a unique position to be in and it is something you have to be passionate about.

That is why when having a glass of Cognac, you get to experience exactly where it came from, this tiny part of southwest France that is shining all over the world. You are drinking a direct link to this wonderful place.

How do you enjoy Cognac most of the time?
For me, I’ve always enjoyed Cognac as a long drink, especially VSOP with ginger ale or lately XO with ice. We are beginning to explain that the snifter is not the best way to experience Cognac. Most of the time when you have the snifter, you hold in in the palm of your hand, and that actually heats it beyond the temperature it needs to best to be enjoyed at. Also, the shape of the snifter doesn’t allow the aromas of the Cognac to escape easily.