Maurice Richard Hennessy, of the cognac dynasty, on why rappers are good people
- The eighth-generation member of the Hennessy family talks about tasting spirits for the first time and meeting hip-hop artists who name-check the cognac
- Now global brand ambassador of the cognac making company, his agricultural background stood him in good stead for his current role
Do you remember the first time you tasted cognac? “I tasted it as a teenager but wasn’t that excited. The first time you have a spirit, it’s like the first time you go to the opera, or see a painting exhibition, especially modern art. It’s just, ‘Wow, what is this all about?’ And then when you study a bit more, try a bit more, go and see an opera that is less difficult than Wagner – Rossini, for example – you start to enjoy it. Cognac is the same. It was helpful to discover you can have a long drink of cognac with tonic or soda water and ice. It’s a great way of drinking it.”
Why did you study agriculture? “I lived in Cognac [in France], in the country. My father [James Hennessy, a nuclear scientist] pushed me to study agriculture because for him, business was not too important. He knew I was happy with my hand in the earth – after all, the vineyard is a kind of farming. But I love cattle, there’s something Indian in me. I don’t have any cows, but they are thoughtful animals, slow in demeanour, and not easy to handle, believe me!
“As part of my degree [at university in Paris] I had to do an internship. I was around 21. My school allowed me to work for a distributor, selling and delivering agricultural products – which happened to be Hennessy cognac – to supermarkets and restaurants in Paris.”
What did you do afterwards? “At the end of the internship, my uncle, the boss of Hennessy at the time, offered me a job. I could join after I finished military service. Instead of military service, however, I worked for an NGO in Upper Volta [modern-day Burkina Faso, in West Africa], in 1975.
“I was in the bush for a year working in a hospital doing non-medical work, running the pharmacy and ambulance service. A colleague was a farming engineer and we designed paddy fields and made sure people ploughed the land with an ox. My friend and I lived in two huts in the bush – it was a far cry from what is happening now in Africa, which is terrible, people being massacred by Boko Haram [the militant Islamist group]. We had a dog and a monkey in the middle of nowhere. You can’t do that now.”
Tell us about Richard Hennessy, who founded the cognac dynasty. “Richard came [to France] from Ireland [in the 1740s]. He joined the Irish Brigade [in the French Army]. Richard’s regiment was based not far from Cognac. He and his cousin, James, went to Ostend, Belgium, to learn about the trading business. Richard married an Irish girl, Ellen Barrett, and they moved to Cognac where we are now. They had a son, Jacques, born in 1765, the same year as Hennessy [the company]. Richard’s son was a good businessman and really made the company grow.”
How has the making of cognac evolved? “Hennessy has 1,600 suppliers and I am one of them, so I am putting my agricultural degree to good use, but thank god I have a manager who knows more than me. What we were taught in the 1970s compared with farming today is night and day. Today, we try to be ecological and use as few chemicals as we can. In the 70s, we used fertiliser, weed killer, insect killer. These days Hennessy is pushing all of its suppliers to be as organic as possible.”
What’s the best way to drink cognac? “There is a tradition to have it neat in a beautiful glass and take time to drink it, but nowadays a lot of cognac is consumed as cocktails, long drinks or on the rocks. A VS or VSOP makes a good cocktail; it doesn’t ruin the cognac. But it’s a little sad to use XO, Paradis and Paradis Imperial in a cocktail; they are better neat or on the rocks.”
What do you think about rappers and hip hop artists, such as Tupac, Snoop Dogg and Drake, mentioning Hennessy in their lyrics? “The word ‘Hennessy’ goes well in a song. Some people say to me, ‘How can you even talk to these rap artists?’ I’ve met quite a few of them and they are nice people. Their private lives or public lives I don’t want to know about, but when I meet them, they are interested, they love to know what cognac is all about. They often come from poor backgrounds and ask me about recommendations, how to drink it, how it’s made.”
Maurice Richard Hennessy was at the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong to promote Hennessy Paradis Imperial.
