Cognac Pierre de Segonzac, un des derniers bouilleurs de cru

Hello! My name is Pablo Ferrand.

Our project is seemingly very simple: it is about breaking free from the main Cognac houses once and for all as well as protect an endangered craft.

Our aim is to keep the totality of our harvest, store it, transform it and bottle it.

Our estate, based in Segonzac (16130) - Grande Champagne First Growth - distils eaux-de-vie since 1702. My ancestors have cleared the land, shaped the plots, enlarged and looked after the vineyard for the last 300 years.

Historically, we've always sold our eaux-de-vie to the trading company right after distillation. Mostly in Rémy-Martin, as we distil on dregs: a more complex and riskier method than for clear wines but which creates more generous and elegant Cognacs.

We distil manually, using ancestral techniques and two alambics of 18 and 25 hectoliters.

Back in the 70s, my grandfather Pierre Ferrand decided to constitute a personal stock by keeping a part of his harvest on the domain. After long years of work, he could finally bottle his first "cups" and offer a home distilled Cognac from his own vineyard. PIERRE FERRAND Cognacs were born.

Pierre plucked up courage and started visiting fairs all over the world (Asia, USA, Europe). After a few tastings, clients began to follow him.

In the 90s, he met two graduates he took under his wing to teach them everything he knew. Together, they started a business named after him. Trouble started from then. Not so long after the business was launched, the two young associates managed to acquire the exclusive property of the brand which was my grand father's name ! They eventually had him condemned for imitation in the early 2000s. The young partners succeeded in stealing someone's lifetime work as well as his name. My grand father wasn't allowed to use his own name anymore to sell his Cognacs.

Fortunately, the late company didn't own any vineyards nor alambics. Our clients were gone but we still have the capacity to produce the finest Cognacs of Grande Champagne. Knocked down but still combative, my grand father didn't give up and teamed up with my father, Christian, to create a new trademark. PIERRE DE SEGONZAC Cognacs were born

Today, we propose 5 qualities of cognac:

• ØVSOP (7 years) Starting price 43€
• ØXO Reserve (15 years) Starting price 52€
• ØXO Angel's selection (30 years) Starting price 72€
• ØXO EXTRA (50 years) Starting price 180€
• ØL Ancestrale (80 years) Starting price 390€

Our products are selected by wine merchants, restaurants, hotels, in France but also abroad. Our work and the quality of our Cognacs are recognised by our peers, wine experts, wine journalists, judging panels (we won various medals) and most of all by our customers.

We receive by appointment in the domain. Our biggest reward is to receive visitor's pictures showing the domain's evolution for the past 80 years.

This heritage, this fight is what we - my father Christian, his wife Dominique, Antony our export manager, and myself - wish to perpetuate.

We want to preserve the home distilling craftsmanship (what we call "bouilleur de cru"). In 1980, 30 000 winegrowers harvested the grapes intended to become Cognac. Today, they are hardly 4 000, among whom only 1200 distil their own harvest.

If we want products with a real identity... If we want to preserve our land and take care of it against gigantic industrial farms using chemicals and damaging the soils... Then, we need to get together to defend a human-size agriculture that respects the environment.

Following the death of my grand father and the numerous rises in taxes and government impositions, we had no choice but to reduce the size of our vineyard (7 hectares : one of the smallest in the area) in order to meet our business objectives.

This is where you come in !

Creating a stock and replanting a part of the vineyard seriously damaged our cash flow. If we want to keep 100% of our harvest to bottle it, we need some flexibility.

*** If we reach our goal, we shall organize one after noon "wine grower" reserved for the donors. This privileged moment it will make for the domain where you can discover some secrets of "bouilleur de cru ".

We hope you numerous (Date and information at the end of campaign)

Where the money goes :

1) Acquisition of new barrels (6 barrels needed for the next harvest). 3 600€

2) Purchase of young interplants (+/-700 plants). 2 450€

3) Acquisition of electric pruning shears. 2 000€

4) Acquisition of equipment for the young plantation. 900€

5) Maintenance of the electric security (distillery). 600€

6) Maintenance of the marc pit. 450€

If the money collected exceeds 10 000€, we'll use it to buy a décavaillonneuse (mechanical weed control) or a flock to control weeds in order to pursue our efforts to transition towards a 100% no chemical agriculture.

You need to know that today, 94% of the market is dominated by 4 trading houses.

Your contributions will help us perpetuate a tricentennial craftsmanship. Thank you again for reading our project : now we count on you !