Product of: France

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Produced to celebrate Martell's Tricentenary, Martell Premier Voyage is limited to an exclusive run of just 300 decanters, each individually signed, numbered and produced to order.

Cellar Master, Benoît Fil, worked with Martell's archivist, who used original correspondence and legers to construct a map of Jean Martell's key suppliers of eaux-de-vie from 1735 to 1742. Benoît then visited winegrowers just as Jean Martell did some 270 years earlier, meeting with many of the same winegrowing families whose ancestors had originally supplied Jean Martell.

As a result of these visits Benoît identified 18 exceptional eaux de vie, the youngest being a 1979 Borderies and 17 from Grande Champagne – the oldest being from 1867. Premier Voyage is a blend of these 18 eaux-de-vie which have an average age over 80 years old.

The final blend was married for nine months in barrels made from the oak of a 300 year-old tree especially sourced from the forest of les Bertranges in France. The tree was felled in 2011 and the barrels coppered in 2013. The casks were seasoned with young cognac and then with mature cognac before being judged ready to be filled with the eaux-de-vie for Premier Voyage.

Review and Tasting

Sampled on 05/05/2015

Appearance:

Clear, deep golden amber.

Aroma:

Violet, lavender, dried fruit, apricot, blackcurrant and blackcurrant leaves with beeswax, sawn wood, orange marmalade, ginger bread, dried fruit and almond.

Taste:

Blackberry fruit, candied orange peel, dried apricot, blackcurrant tannins, sweet cinnamon spice and elegant oak.

Aftertaste:

Very long. Passion fruit, dried mango and blackcurrant. Faint bitterness.

Overall:

Very rich, complex and intense but with great fineness.