THE GRAPE AND THE GOOD
As an Englishman, I am partial to the cross-channel ‘entente cordiale’ that can sometimes include low-level namecalling and sibling-like competitiveness. However, there is one area in which the British must doff their caps to their French friends, and that is their skill with the grape. How they take this dusty vine fruit and without the addition of sugar turn it into a drink of infinite complexity and deliciousness is beyond both my palette and comprehension. It reaches beyond wine, of course, from armagnac to champagne, but perhaps the most august is cognac, and the house of Rémy Martin is perhaps the finest of them all. They have, by their own admission, been somewhat under the radar until recently. The launch of the members’ pop-up in London’s Wardour Street, La Maison Rémy Martin, indicates an ascension from its slumber, and as we learn from their charismatic chief executive, Eric Vallat, it has nothing to
