SB meets… Patrick Leger, Grand Marnier

Patrick Leger, master blender of Grand Marnier liqueur, discusses his first project, the Exceptional range, and the company’s ambition to become one of the biggest players in Cognac.

After working for family-owned Cognac maker Camus, Patrick Leger joined Campari Group as master blender for its Cognac-based Grand Marnier liqueur brand in March 2020. He sat down with The Spirits Business to discuss the brand’s newest expressions, Quintessence and Révélation, which are made with XXO Cognacs from Grande Champagne.

Quintessence was made with hors d’âge Cognacs aged up to 70 years old from Grande Champagne. The blend comes exclusively from 11 barrels, including two from 1947, and three demijohns from Paradis, the personal reserves of the Marnier Lapostolle family cellar, which are believed to be even older.

What was the main inspiration behind Quintessence?

The objective of Campari was to elevate Grand Marnier within the Cognac category. In the Cognac category you have VS, VSOP, XO and XXO. We wanted to have an XXO, which is a new category of Cognac with no limits. We have no limit in the Cognac category because we can play every year with different Cognacs, different history, terroir, types of ageing. As master blender, I’m the guardian of the temple of Grand Marnier, so I am using Cognac just coming from my predecessor. I need to preserve the stock and to build the stock for the future generation. As soon as I take vintages to use for Quintessence, I have to put in stock for 50- to 60-year-old Cognac, which can be used in 10 years, 20 years or 40 years. This is my objective.

How old is the Cognac that is used in Quintessence liqueur? When did you create the product?

It’s a blend of different Cognacs. The oldest is around 100 years old, very old. It was launched at the end of 2021 but it was created two years before. We started working on this product at the beginning of 2020.

So the liquid is very scarce – how much is available?

We have 500 carafes per year, so when we launched it we only had 1,000 carafes. So now we are working on the next addition and a new collection.

How would you drink Quintessence?

Neat is the best way, and of course if you want to have a dessert with it then this product is perfect, or with a coffee.

What was your first experience with spirits?

I was only 10 years old. My father and my grandfather were winegrowers and distillers. So my first experience in terms of tasting and smelling was in the distillery of my grandfather. But my real first experience in the business of spirits was Alizé, a [French] brand based on Cognac and passionfruit, which was very successful in the 90s. It was selling 600,000 cases annually. So it was my first big experience in the Cognac category.

How did you come to work in the industry?

I worked for Alizé for 11 years. At the start I was in charge of the distillery and the Cognac production, and year after year I was tasting and learning about the Cognac. I’m really fascinated by the distillation process. I learned a lot about the Cognac and its intensity, and how you can marry it with different food, different aromas and different possibilities. Afterwards I joined a family Cognac company, Camus, where I worked as a master blender, and then five years as managing director. I was mainly focused on Cognac but there was a large portfolio of products. I was also in charge of production of the company’s Irish whiskey, and Chinese baijiu Moutai.

What are you experimenting with at the moment?

Grand Marnier is a very old brand, created in 1827, so you can imagine in 2027 we will be 200 years old. So this is something that we are working on, and I’m experimenting with something interesting. We are also working on a limited edition for Quintessence.

We are also working a lot on sustainability in our production, distillation and how we can be very respectful to our planet. We’re thinking about how we can reuse everything and how we can limit our impact on the environment. I’m working with the Cognac organisation, the BNIC [Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac], as part of the scientific management committee. I’m also in the managing committee of the BNIC; we are only 16 people in the Cognac area, so eight wine growers and eight brands. I’m representing Grand Marnier and Campari, so we’re working all together to find solutions at each stage of Cognac making. How we can protect the soils, how we can build less cellars and find solutions for distillation.

Have you implemented any sustainability measures already?

We are working on the reduction of the water that we use in the distillation process. We need water to cool the distillation process so we reuse the same water. This is probably one of the best and more easy things to do. We’re also working on how to recover energy. We are working to find the pot still of the future, without using fossil fuels.

Can you tell me about your involvement in the relaunch of Bisquit & Dubouché Cognac?

It’s an older brand compared to Grand Marnier as it was founded in 1819. It’s very, very old. It’s an interesting brand with a rich history. Like Grand Marnier, there’s a family behind the brand. In 2022, we launched the complete range of Bisquit – VS, VSOP and XO. In the short future, we’ll have the equivalence of Quintessence.

We are always working on the oldest stock to produce it. So we have a nice stock of very old Cognac – this is something we need to increase for the future of Bisquit. Bisquit was the number-two in the Cognac category in the 1950s, so now we are probably very small in the Cognac category, but with Campari we will be back in the short future in the top 10.

Production was very small when Campari acquired the brand in 2018. It was also very small in terms of sales. In 2020, we started working on the new qualities, new blends, new packaging, new positioning, and we relaunched in 2022.

What’s your vision for the brand?

The first vision is to build a very qualitative product. We’re improving our distillation methods, and we have a longer distillation compared to our competitors. Second, to recover the brand’s place on the market. So we have the qualities, the wine growers, the partners, and we are strong because we are big in the Cognac category now we have Bisquit and Grand Marnier. In the Cognac category, we are number five, a big player.