
Gently push open the door of the Tesseron home in
Châteauneuf-sur-Charente to discover the family treasure : a unique
collection of the finest cognacs. This treasure trove dates back to
the nineteenth century when Abel Tesseron acquired this property and
began his collection of rare and priceless cognacs. A tradition
continued by his son and grandson Alfred, who runs the business
today and who also owns the prestigious Château Pontet-Canet, a
Pauillac Classified Growth in 1855.
Abel
Tesseron created his own cognac company in 1905, relying at the time
on two separate estates, one situated in the Grande Champagne area (Boneuil)
and the other in Petite Champagne (Saint-Surin). He adopted a long
term policy of building up stocks of eaux-de-vie, carefully
conserved in a twelfth century crypt. These old and rare treasures,
besides achieving a great reputation amongst a small circle of
connoisseurs, have always been sought after by the big cognac
merchants, assured of the fine quality of the eaux-de-vie they would
use to complete their blends.
Today, thanks to a continual and ever increasing demand, the company
is selling more and more of its cognacs under the Tesseron name.
The
cognacs within the Tesseron range are specifically labelled as
‘lots’, a term rarely used in Charente. As Alfred Tesseron
explains : “These ‘lots’ are, in fact, blends taken from our
reserve stocks.”