Otard
Otard is one of the most traditional cognac distilleries based in the castle of Cognac in France. By the purchase of the brand by the Italian group Martini & Rossi SpA in 1991, the company was family-owned. Today otard is a subsidiary of US-based Bacardi Group, however, has its headquarters in Bermuda.
Family History
Suspect
James O'Tard successfully fought in the service of Louis XIV and became therefore in 1701 the hereditary barony. The family settled in and around Cognac and devoted himself to the distillation of wine into eau de vie, which you probably knowledge - were the whiskey distillery from their Scottish homeland of use - and probably professionals.
Company founder
As a member of the French nobility Jean -Baptiste Antoine otard was arrested at the time of the French Revolution in 1793 and sentenced to death, but he and other prisoners were liberated by the mob. He fled to England, but returned after a short time and acquired a year after the company was founded in 1796 by the revolutionaries as a national ( bien national) seized the castle of Cognac in an auction.
In 1804 he was elected mayor of Cognac and retained this position until his death (1824 ) at the age of 61 years. Two years earlier he had been appointed a member of the Legion of Honour ( légion d' honneur ). His heart was buried in the church of Saint- Léger.
Castle cellar
The cellars of otard extend over large areas in the castle of Cognac as well as in newer outbuildings, the Barique barrels are stacked in multiple levels. The sometimes several meters thick walls and vaults of the old castle cellars are - due to the high humidity of about 90 % and a summer and winter uniform temperature of about 15 ° C - covered with a dark fungal tissue ( torula compniancensis ) that of the located exhalations nourished. The high humidity makes for a lower evaporation rate than in a dry environment; other hand, diffuses proportionately more alcohol. Nevertheless, the house loses otard solely by evaporation - by its own account - Cognac annually the equivalent of about three million bottles.