Taking the long view: Cognac Frapin

As Cognac Frapin celebrates its 750th anniversary, albeit more quietly than planned due to Covid-19, CEO Jean-Pierre Cointreau tells Arabella Mileham that the firm’s impressive history gives him a sense of perspective about current events

In an interview two years ago, John Elkann, the scion of the Agnelli family, which owns Fiat-Chrysler, noted that for every million businesses only 45 have lasted more than 100 years, while only one in a billion have lasted for 200 years. Ever fewer businesses can boast 750 years of family ownership – but Cognac Frapin is one such company.

The firm traces its roots back to 1270, when the Frapin family settled in the Charente as winegrowers. This was around the time that Mongol hordes were threatening the eastern Mediterranean with a relatively new invention of gunpowder; the rudder was invented by the Baltic trading community The Hanseatic League; Simon de Montfort founded what would later develop into the English Parliament; and Wencesslaus I or ‘Good King Wenceslas’, ruled over Bohemia. So it comes as no surprise that Jean-Pierre Cointreau, 21st generation of the Frapin family and the current CEO of parent company Renaud Cointreau, which owns Cognac Frapin, Pages Vedrenne Liqueurs and Champagne Gosset, tends to take a long-term view of things.

The sanguine Frenchman, a father of six, credits the company’s longevity to it being mainly “the long story of a family. The involvement of the family in vineyards has been ongoing for centuries, but I think it’s really a question of spirit, that’s probably the right word,” he says.

History is a private as well as a company passion, and Cointreau spends downtime reading, particularly history books. “During the lockdown weekends, I managed to build the family trees of the managers of our brands from the 13th to the 21st century,” he said. “For family and brands, I would say the deeper the roots the better the fruit – and each generation has tried to benefit from the involvement of the previous one, while adapting to new challenges.”

A challenging year

This is a theme he returns to time and again during our conversation. And 2020 has certainly been challenging, with the global pandemic shutting down bars, restaurants and venues around the world, grounding airlines and causing events and weddings that would normally be celebrated with Champagne – including the company’s 750th anniversary celebrations – to be pared back or postponed. Inevitably this will have a big effect on sales this year, but Cointreau takes all this in his stride – after all, Frapin has weathered 16 global pandemics during its long history, from the Black Death in the 14th century to Covid-19.

“I don’t think the consumers have disappeared. I have confidence in the future – I wouldn’t be celebrating 750 years of family presence in Cognac if I wasn’t sure there was a future for our products,” Cointreau explains. He says there have been no problems in terms of production in France.

“The vendanges are over in Champagne, and are starting in Cognac with good crops for both.” How long it might take for much of this trade to bounce back is still an unknown quantity, and he notes that the answer is potentially different for Cognac, which has a strong European and Asian market, and Champagne, which relies heavily on events, weddings and travel retail. While he acknowledges that global travel retail is likely to take a long time to recover, he thinks the events side is likely to suffer only short-term damage.

As a result, he supports the recent decision of the Champagne region to reduce yields for the 2020 harvest by around 100 million bottles on its usual output, describing it as “a very good compromise” that has been somewhat over-dramatised in the news.

“It’s not as dramatic as I read in a few interviews – it’s common sense to adapt the production to the forecast sales.” He argues that the Champagne region has always been the best region in France for managing its vineyards, and adaptation is wise, given that the health crisis has unquestionably lowered consumption. “These Champagne bodies have been focusing more to adapt the yield of the vineyard to the forecast consumption figures, so of course the figure are lowered. But everything is made through reserves, through potential new allocations of wines so that if the figures are better, we will be able to have more wines to have more Champagne bottles on the global market in a few years’ time.”