Martell Cognac is the oldest of the “big four” cognac houses, founded in 1715 in Gatebourse by Jean Martell, a young man born on the Channel Island of Jersey. As history teaches us most brands started life as merchant traders that subsequently start to produce themselves in order to maintain supply and quality, Martell is no different. Martell created a number of initiatives, being the first Cognac house to produce a VSOP, XO and when they launched Martell Cordon Bleu in 1912 where the first to mass market and produce a Prestige Cognac. Martell remained a family owned business from 1715 through to 1987 when the US based business Seagram’s purchased the brand. In 2001 Pernod-Ricard acquired the brand returning the business back into French care.

The French aren’t big Cognac drinkers and historically exported to neighbouring countries, with Martell being the UK’s biggest cognac market from the early 1800’s. Martell distribution has always been rooted in the UK pub trade business and until the 1990’s remained the drink of choice until it replaced by Courvoisier.

An interesting fact on Martell is that they are interlinked with the brand Hennessy through a number of family member marriages, and whilst they always remained competitors the businesses would make joint decisions on the pathway of Cognac and share ideas and production initiative which may be why Martell and Hennessy share a similar taste profile in comparison to Courvoisier and Remy Martin.

A question that is always asked, is Martell a brandy or cognac. No simple answer as it is technically classed as both. As only wines produced in the Champagne region can be called Champagne, only brandies produced in the Cognac region can be called Cognac. So the quick answer is Martell is a cognac.

Prestige Drinks are the leading provider of Martell Cognac gifts and personalised cognac. We offer Martell VS, Martell VSOP, Martell Cordon Bleu and the Martell XO and all three personalised options across Martell products.

Engraved Martell bottles choosing either 3 or 4 lines of text and the optional occasion stencils on Martell VS and VSOP. The products available are personalised Martell VS 70cl, Personalised Martell VSOP, Personalised Martell Cordon Bleu and Personalised Martell XO.

Exclusively to Prestige Drinks we also offer the option of engraving a photo or having a picture printed directly onto the bottle. Photo engraved pictures is a process of converting your image into a map of alternating shapes that once engraved presents a grey-scale replication of the image you provide, this service is available on photo engraved Martell VS, photo engraved Martell VSOP and photo engraved Martell XO. The printed image option provides a full colour image printed directly onto the glass bottle and is available on picture personalised Martell VS, picture personalised Martell VSOP, picture personalised Martell Cordon Bleu and picture personalised Martell XO.

All Martell gifts can be ordered on next day delivery and there are options to add wooden gift boxes to complete your purchase. The full range of wooden boxes can be viewed on the accessories page.

Prestige Drinks also offers other cognac brands such as Hine, Hennessy, Courvoisier, Remy Martin or personalised brandy brands as Asbach or Metaxa.