BRC S2 E10 Blending Tradition and Innovation in Armagnac with Christophe Namer

Transcription

00:00:00
            

Hello, good evening, good afternoon. Whatever time it is that you're tuning into the show today. Today on the show, I have Christophe Namer. I'm probably saying that wrong, so I'll let Christoph introduce himself shortly. He is the founder of a Armagnac company called Cardinal Du Four, and it is gorgeous.        

00:00:20
            

I met Christophe, actually last year at a Oscar Oscar party gifting suite lounge, and I got to taste this wonderful nectar. So I thought it was about time we had him on the show so he could tell us all about Armagnac, because we haven't had an Armagnac on the show. And Christophe, tell me, first of all, I'll let you say your name properly because I'm sure I'm massacring it. Good.        

00:00:48
            

So tell me, what has your spirits journey been? And when you were a wee little lad, did you ever think that you would be heading up an Armagnac company? Not really. Actually, at the beginning, I was really a big fan of Cognac. I was also working for a Cognac brand.         

00:01:03
            

So at the beginning, my dream was really to create a new Cognac brand. So I actually flew to Cognac and visited a couple of Distilleries, but I rapidly realized that I could never get my hands on very high quality odovi. Because, as you know, the Cognac region has been really developed, and all the top, I would say, producer are selling their odovi to the big houses that we all know very well. So my other options was to go check out Armagnac. And when I went to Armagnac, honestly, it was an ah ha moment.        

00:01:40
            

When I visited the region, I fell in love with the region. I fell in love with the people, and I was very lucky. I was introduced to the biggest negotiation house in Armagnac, which pretty much controlled 20% of the reserves of Armagnac. So when I met with the owner of this Negotiator house,  that was my first question. I was like, what can I get my hands on?        

00:02:04
            

Because in order for me to compete, I think at the highest level, I wanted to make sure I can get my hands on the best of the best odov possible. And when I went there, he kind of smiled at me, and he opened six different cellars full of odov from the late 18 hundreds until now. And he was like, Everything is for sale here. So I was like, oh, wow. And when we started to barrel test different odov, that wasn't even touched at all, like, odov, that was like 20 years old, 30 years old, 40 years old, 50 years old.        

00:02:36
            

I was blown away, blown away by the quality of those ODV. And I was like, okay, I can really deliver a product that can compete at the highest level. And how long ago was that? That was end of 2017. Okay.        

00:02:51
            

And now, for those of us who don't know much about Armagnac, what's the difference between Armagnac and Cognac? And then what is the makeup of the recipe for yours? Yes. So the differences between Armagnac and Cognac are very slim. Actually, it's a very similar product.        

00:03:12
            

The differences is mostly on the distillation process. So in Cognac, they double distill. So it's distillate with a pot steel, which they distill at a higher content alcohol. Armagnac, it's a one time distill through an Olympic. So it's a continuous steel.        

00:03:30
            

So you distill slower, but at a lower content alcohol. So you retrieve more character and more mature, as we call it. Okay. And then the other difference is that the grapes that we use to make the Odov, so in Cognac, they only use one grape, which is called Uni Blonde. In Armaniac, we are allowed to use ten different grapes.        

00:03:53
            

But technically, to this day, what's available, it's four grapes. So most blends have four different grapes. So it's uni Blanc as well as Cognac Fault, Blanche Connombar and Baco Blanc. Baco Blanc is actually a Nybrid that was created after the Philoxero. So it's a very resistant grape.        

00:04:16
            

So, for example, Cardinal Euphora has four of those grapes blended together. Wow. And what color are these grapes? So they're all white. So it's a white grape.        

00:04:26
            

So it start as a white grape. You make a low alcohol, high acid wine, and then you distill those wine. So you go from eight to 10% content alcohol to 64% content alcohol in one time, in one distillation. Wow. Cool.        

00:04:44
            

So when you went out there and you found this guy with all of these great with all of his great stuff, how long did it take from 2017 to when you had your first product on the shelf? So it took me two years to build everything. So when I went there and I realized that, okay, the Eau-de-vie are there, the product is there to create something really amazing, then I wanted to obviously come up with a really cool name that is compelling, that people can understand and have a great story. So I started to read about the Armagnac category and read about the history of Armagnac. And this gentleman, Cardinal Dufour, actually came back all the time.        

00:05:27
            

And even when I was checking the website of all the top Armagnac brands in Armagnac, they always talk about Cardinal Ju Four being a pioneer in the Armagnac c region. So basically, he was a priest from the Armagnac region dating back to 1300. So over 700 years ago. And sometimes people don't realize that Armagnac is 200 years older than Cognac. Cognac is 500 years old.        

00:05:53
            

Armagnac is 700 years old. And this gentleman was a priest in one three hundreds. So, like, over 700 years ago, at the beginning, beginning of the Armagnac category. And, you know, at that time, he was still middle aged, so there was a lot of things to discover. And this gentleman was a priest, became Cardinal, and he was a Luminary.        

00:06:12
             

He was a scientist. He was writing books on knowledge, enlightenment and so on. And in 1310, he actually wrote a book saying that Armagnac has 40 different virtues. So back then, in middle aged, they were using alcohol as a medicine. I mean, we still do to this day.        

00:06:29
            

We just drink a little bit better now. But the book that he wrote in 1310 happens to be the first evidence of distillation in France and even in the world. And the book that he wrote in 1310 happens to be at the Vatican Labyrinth, Rome, since the 16th century. So at the beginning, when I saw the name, and we realized that it could be a really cool name, because basically what Cardio for is to spirit is what Domperinion is to champagne. Don perennial didn't invent the champagne, but he was there at the beginning.        

00:07:03
            

He was a pioneer at the beginning of when champagne happened by accident. And Armagnac actually Cardinal Jufour was the pioneer, was the person who actually brought the first evidence of distillation. So that's actually a pretty cool, compelling story. So when I was in Armagnac, actually, and I was working on the blend, some local people asked me how I'm going to call it. And when I told them, Cardinal Dufu, at the beginning, everybody thought that there's no way you get that name.        

00:07:34
            

The name was protected, thought that it's not going to be able to use the name. But everything checked out. He was a priest. He became cardinal. No kids, no descendants.        

00:07:44
            

The name hasn't been used for 700 years. So we were able to trademark the name in less than a year. Wow. So after that, we felt like, okay, we up to something. We have the odovi, we have the quality of the product.         

00:07:57
            

We have a very interesting name and an interesting story. So from there, we were like, okay, now we have to develop a brand new design. And so that's why we work really hard to come up with that design, which is a timeless design. And it was very important to come up with a design that would be timeless in a way that, in 100 years, I think that this design of a bottle is going to still be cool. So that's what we did.        

00:08:22
            

We developed this new design, and we also got a design patent on that bottle. It's a gorgeous bottle, and I love this emblem here. I kind of want to peel it off the bottle when I'm done with it. But then again, I also want to keep the bottle. And then I love that it's the whole cardinal hat on the top.        

00:08:40
            

So you see, the bottle kind of looks like a cardinal. If you look at it, it looks like a person yeah. That was trying to stay in the luxury trademark and get a really cool, timeless design. That was the key. Did you launch it here in America first, or did you launch it in France first or somewhere else?        

00:08:58
            

No, I actually fell in love with the whole industry, the hospitality industry, when I came to the US. I came in the US in 2001, so pretty much 20 years ago, and I was just graduated. I got my bachelor's degree, and I didn't want to walk in France. And I was like, okay, I don't speak English. Let's just go check out Los Angeles, see what's up.        

00:09:20
            

And I came here, and I said to walk with a friend of mine who was cooning a restaurant. And I really loved I just loved the life here in Los Angeles. And so I never left. Since I came, I actually invested money into a restaurant business, and I realized rapidly that I didn't know enough about wine and spirits. People thought that I knew a lot because I'm French, and you can tell after 22 years, I still have a thick French accent.        

00:09:46
            

So people always assume that you know so well about so knowledgeable about food, wine, and spirits, but I was just learning, and I really fell in love. And I went through three different schools to become an advanced sommelier, and from there, I started to work for some liquor brands. So I worked for Gregus for, like, seven years, and then I work also for Remy Martin, like Louisa 13. So I really fell in love with those luxury products. So I learned from two of the best luxury French product, and it was always a dream, honestly, to create my own brand of liquor.        

00:10:22
            

But it always feels a little bit inaccessible. It feels like, okay, this is just a dream. You can't really create your own brand. And one day, I decided to take the leap of faith and was like, okay, I think I have the connections. I have the knowledge now to create a brand, and I have also the right network to start the brand and try to create the buz on the brand.        

00:10:47
            

So I was like, okay, if I don't do it now, I will never do it. And so I sold my house, and I went all in. Very cool.        

00:10:58
            

I know you were just in France recently, but do you get to go and taste all the barrels and kind of help them blend what you want into these batches? Yeah, absolutely. At the beginning, from 2018 to 2020, for the first two years, I was going back to France at least five, six times a year. And I was very involved in selecting the odevi and as well as the blending, of course, I got help from some of the seller masters there, but I had in my mind some flavor profile that I wanted to recreate. And I always kept in mind, also working for the top top cognac in the world, pretty much.        

00:11:39
            

I was very lucky to always test the best Eau-de-vie , the best product from that region. So I always kept this in mind, this opulence, this depth, this complexity, that you can get from those Eau-de-vie . So when I went to Almania, I realized I can find this similar Eau-de-vie that has the similar characteristics. The key is to find Eau-de-vie that complements each other. If you get too many Eau-de-vie that have the same characteristics, they're going to compete against each other and is not going to become harmonious.        

00:12:09
            

So that's why what's very important is to understand that and to select odovi that have different characteristics. So in my mind, at the beginning, I wanted to get a certain type of role, a certain type of dry food characteristic, a certain type of spices, certain type of finish. And I wanted to get this really kind of light, I would say opulence, but at the same time with no sugar and no caramel. So actually that's what it is. So if you look at the bottle, it says 21 on it.        

00:12:41
            

So it means that the youngest odov in the blend has been aged 21 years old. The oldest is 43 years old. So if you do the average based on the volume of the blend, it's actually a 30 years old product. The big innovation behind the product is that there is no sugar and no caramel added. So that's actually the challenge, because most blends have sugar at the end, which really helps kind of making the blend round and harmonious.        

00:13:10
            

And it also helps to recreate the same exact kind of flavor profile when you don't use any sugar. You really have to make sure that each odov you are selecting is clean, super clean. Because when you start blending it with other odovi, if one of them has the slight little problem, then during the al shimi, or when the product gets together, it will amplify the fault, and then your blend is not going to be good and you won't be able to sell it. Yeah, that was the real challenge. But I feel like we were able to deliver.        

00:13:46
            

It took two years, honestly, to make the blend, and we were very careful of choosing the right Eau-de-vie . So that was really key to the success of the product, in my opinion. Well, I think it's time we have a little taste. You have yours? Yes.        

00:14:02
            

If you look at it, if you look at the color, you can see it's a very soft, brilliant amber color. The fact there is no caramel. This is a natural color of a 30 years old product. Caramel actually brings the color, and sugar brings the sweetness. I love the legs on this too.        

00:14:22
            

It's nice and oily. Exactly. Nice and oily. And it's, I think, a beautiful, brilliant amber color. So then after, the best way is to kind of bring the glass to your nose, back and forth.        

00:14:37
            

So you see when you kind of far away from the glass, you get a lot of floral aromas. You get a lot of, like, jasmine, iris, and then as you get closer to your nose, you start getting all the dry food characteristics. You get dried Figged, cooked apple, a bit of apricot, and then when you get your nose a little bit deeper into the glass, you start getting all the spiciness, like a cinnamon, little bit of nutmeg. It's delicious. Thank you.        

00:15:10
            

And you see how light it is. It's very light and opulent. It kind of evaporates in your mouth, but at the same time gives you a long finish with a lot of complexity and it keeps on giving. And honestly, when you drink a product of this caliber, the best way is to take your time because the almaniac is going to change, it's going to keep on giving even more and more. So I think the main more pronounced flavors are the dry fig, the cooked apple.        

00:15:38
            

There's a beautiful also a little bit salted caramel. Yeah, I'm definitely tasting all of that. Thank you. And the testing, see, the finish has kind of a grip in the back of your throat, so you don't have this sugary coating that you will get with cognac, which really brings the almaniac to the table. And it pairs so well with food because of that, because of the dry finish.        

00:16:02
            

And also the dry finish has a little bit of cacao bean, like dark cacao bean so, which gives a tiny little bitterness at the end. It's delicious. Thank you.        

00:16:15
            

We actually got five gold medals pretty much so far. So we have done many competitions, but the one that I'm most proud of is we get twice the gold medal in France at the Concord General, I recall the Paris. So in 2019, the blend was just finished. We just reduced it to 40% because when you walk with those Eau-de-vie , you actually walk at cast strength. So we were walking at Eau-de-vie between 55% to 58% content alcohol.        

00:16:48
            

Then when we finished the blend, I think we are around like 56, 57% content alcohol. And then we reduced it slowly to 40%. This process usually takes a good eight months. So we just finished it to reduce it and the competition was happening. So we submitted the samples and had honestly didn't think we'll have win anything because we won competition with all the blends at 20 years old and above.        

00:17:15
            

Since the blend was just created and didn't have a chance to sit and rest, I thought, okay, we have nothing to lose, but just let's submit it. And we actually came on top and got the gold medal, which was pretty amazing. And then we didn't submit it the next year because you can't. Then the following year it was actually COVID, so it was canceled. And we submitted again last year, 2022, and we again got the gold medal.        

00:17:44
            

That was very exciting. And we also get the gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirit Competitions. And we sent a bottle to Antony Diaz Blue, which is pretty much the godfather of spirits in America. He's reviewing all the spirits and he gave us a 97 point double gold. And at the end of his testing note, he said, perhaps the most refined almaniac that I have ever tested.        

00:18:09
            

It is delicious. It is absolutely delicious. Thank you. Honestly, this is an almaniac that is created to compete with the top. I would say Brandy Cognacs.        

00:18:21
            

That was the idea. Not necessarily because you know how it is with the representation of Armaniac. Armaniac has been known in a way because of vintages, because of also sometimes cast strength. So it's delicious product, but in my opinion, it's a little bit hard for a normal person to enjoy it if you're obviously like a conesur and you drink all those cast proof whiskeys and you're going to enjoy those product, but the normal general public will not necessarily enjoy because it's too strong and too out of balance. In my opinion, this is really balanced, very approachable for anybody.        

00:19:05
            

It is. It's absolutely gorgeous. So where can people find this to buy it? And in what countries is it available in? So far, it's only available in America.        

00:19:16
            

Only available in California, Miami, New York, New Jersey and Las Vegas. So that's the only state cities that we opened. And we have a beautiful presence in Los Angeles with, I think, 25 different retailers, from boutique retailers, from wallies to remedy, to mission liquors, to high time wine sellers. So we are walking with them. And New Jersey also a bunch of retailers.        

00:19:51
            

But what's really exciting is for the on premise, for hotels and restaurants we have so far we're able to walk with Eric Ripper from Lebanonada, Michela. We also walk with Daniel Ballude, who is a two star Michelin, New York. We work also with Scott Korean Steakhouse, which is a one star Michelin. We walk with Alan Ducas Le Bernoir. We've been working with five or six different noboos between Las Vegas, California.        

00:20:24
            

What else? Also, Mr. Cho and Beverly Hills work with the Bacca Hotel in New York. So we've really been focusing on introducing the brand to top high image ANC accounts like fine dining and trendy places. And it's been going very well.        

00:20:43
            

Now we just have to keep on pushing and keep on getting a distributor and have more salespeople in the market selling the product. That's great. So, fortunately, and unfortunately, I think this all started kind of taking off during the lockdown and the pandemic. So how did that shift what you were planning to do or how you had to launch your stuff? Oh, yeah, that was definitely a big blow because I was not expecting to have my first continental arriving March of 2020 and then April of 2020, the whole California shut down for the whole year.        

00:21:22
            

So I couldn't get a meeting, I couldn't do a testing, I couldn't do an event. So, yeah, it was frustrating, for lack of better word. But in a way, now that I look back, it's kind of a blessing in disguise because that whole year I was able to spend online, so I was able to do a beautiful website, I was able to also develop my Instagram and Facebook pages and since I had time, we make sure all the pictures were pristine. So we really developed very nice presence online throughout that first year. And now that we've been going, selling the product and meeting with people, at least now when they Google the brand, it looks like we've been around for longer and it looks like the brand has more cashier than if, for example, I was just going and selling and doing testings.        

00:22:13
            

I would have probably not spent as much time online and I would have not paid as much attention of the quality of the pictures. So I think now when I look back, it's a good thing. That's very cool. Everything on the bottle and everything that you see on the box has a meaning. So that was very important also for us to make sure that we have a really strong architecture of brands with a compelling story with core values and brand identity and all that.        

00:22:41
            

So if you look at below, the number 21 so I explained what the blend is all about, but below we call it 21 Rebellion. So why rebellion? So you can see there's a kind of a religious aspect beyond the brand with the cardinal. So the meaning of the number 21 in the Bible is actually rebellion and sin. So we call it Rebellion because it's a rebellion of Armaniac towards Cognac, since Armaniac always has been a shadow of Cognac for pretty much 500 years.        

00:23:09
             

And actually the only reason why Armaniac has been a shadow of Cognac for so long is because there was not a close by river. So the big investment were made in the Cognac region because at that time, also Cognac, it's a much bigger region, so there's more opportunities. But the fact that it's a close by river, it was easier to move the product through the river to England and Europe and all those different countries. Almaniac is more inland. So back then, now we don't have this problem anymore, but back then it was really difficult to move the Almaniac.        

00:23:42
            

So that's why there was a heavy investment made into the Cognac region and then for the big brands in Cognac. Doesn't make any sense to promote a new category, which is Almaniac, which has, in my opinion, as good or even better ODV even better product than Cognac, which will compete directly with their Cognac, with a different category that needs awareness and marketing and needs a lot of love to be able to get this awareness into the market. Was the reason. So then after that, what do you think the emblem is any?        

00:24:23
            

Well, it kind of looks like a manhole cover, but I know that's not what it is. So basically he was a French priest, he became cardinal. So he was actually going to the Vatican a lot to assist the pop. So I was trying to find a connection between France and Italy because of that. And so I flew to the Vatican.        

00:24:44
            

And when I visited the Vatican from room to room, when you look up, you see those beautiful DOMS, those beautiful ceilings from Made. So it kind of triggered my interest. But what really convinced me is that I don't know if you had a chance to go to Rome in Italy. No, but the Ponteon in downtown Rome. So the ponteon is actually a temple that was built over 2000 years ago.        

00:25:09
            

And when you step inside the Ponteon, you can see the world's largest and reinforced concrete dome in the entire world. So it's really mind blowing. And when I step inside a ponteon, I just had this haha moment. I was like okay, this is it. This is what the emblem should be.        

00:25:24
            

Because plus, the temple was built to honor all gods. So I was like, oh, this is perfect. Because it's kind of a Christian kind of feel because of the cardinal. So having the diamblem inspired by a temple that was built over 2000 years ago and that was built to honor all gods, I felt like it was a really nice, cool story to take. And around the dome you can see three different words written in Latin.        

00:25:52
            

So you see harmonia, illuminatio and admiracu So those are the core values of the brand. Then we wrote in Latin. And the reason why we wrote it in Latin is that in 1310, when Cardinal Duford wrote that book which happens to be the first evidence of distillation in France and in the world, he actually wrote it in Latin to bring authenticity to the emblem. We thought that it will make sense to write it in Latin. So harmonia, that's harmony, the harmony of the blend.        

00:26:19
            

So we went to find those key musical notes which are the odovi, to put them together to create an harmonious blend which give us also a pillar to do collaboration with music, pop, hip hop and rock and roll. Then illuminatio means alightment. So we are pulling the light on the Armaniac region which always has been a shadow of cognac which also give us a pillar to talk about the 700 years of history, the French Savor Fair and all those beautiful product coming out of that region. And the last one, admiracio means wonder. So when you see the bottle, you see the packaging, you wonder what it is.        

00:26:56
            

It's mysterious. So basically that's the story of the brand. And if you look at behind the emblem, there's a message in the bottle. So there's actually a cool little discoveries, especially when you drink the bottle and the liquid goes below the dome because suddenly he appears. It pops in gold and red.        

00:27:15
            

So when the liquid, you can barely see it but then it really pops. You see when you drink a little bit more of Armaniac and the liquid goes below and it says cardinal Dufour is the harmony of alightment and wonder, which is the mission of the brand. That is awesome. So how much does a bottle of this cost retail? So retail, it depends on the retailer, but it goes between 405 hundred a bottle.        

00:27:43
            

That's amazing. It's definitely worth every penny. It is so good. Thank you.        

00:27:50
            

What's your five year plan? My five year plan? Right now, I'm hoping that I can secure a pretty big distributors so I can segment all the markets and get to work with all those sales rep and go around and introduce the brand and sell the brand trend some Ambassadors and some sales rep to learn about the Amania category and be able to talk and explain this beautiful product and sell Sell as much as we can. So do you plan to make any other expressions or get involved with any other type of spirit for your life? Yes.        

00:28:32
            

So right now I'm actually working on releasing some miniature. So I want to recreate a replica, like 100 ML of the product. So complete replica, which will be great because we can use it for like five star hotels, all the minibars, like the private jets, the first class. And we can also use it as a gift to send for marketing purposes to journalists. So that's in the pipeline.        

00:29:02
            

And I'm also working I cannot really tell what it is yet, but we're working on very all limited editions that will be very old, really exceptional odov that we want to release in the near future. Nice. Very nice. Another thing that we did also, that is I think really cool. We've been collaborating with buzzing artists, really well known buzzing artists.        

00:29:30
            

And the last one that we partner with, his name is Shen Gufork.        

00:29:36
            

So every year we support a City Harvest in New York. So City Harvest, it's a food bank pretty much, that have been raising money to supply food for all the New Yorkers in needs. And this charity has a huge following with all the top chefs in New York. So last year, it was the first year that we were involved with them and we were part of the live auction package with Eric Ripper, which is the chef, the three star Michelin chef of Le Bernarda in New York. And so last year we partnered with a different artist.        

00:30:11
            

His name was James Peter Henry and we were part of the package where it was an in home dinner experience for 20 people. So Eric Repair and his team goes to the house to prepare a dinner and we created a one of a kind painted bottle of Cardinal Dufour that was actually also added to that package. And during the live auction, John Legend, who is a friend of Eric Repair, actually got up and went on stage. And offered to sing at the dinner as well. So he added, actually, another kind of bonus on top of it.        

00:30:48
            

I think during the live auction, we were around, like, $800,000 for the package, which is already incredible. And John Legend came, and the whole package sold for $1.2 million. Wow. That was absolutely incredible. I was so proud to be part of that.         

00:31:05
            

So that was amazing. We did it again this year with a different artist. His name is Shen Gufork. So we are part also of a three star Michelin dinner. So three different chefs from New York.        

00:31:17
            

So that was Marcus Gloker from Coloman. There was Emma. Okay, you know what? We need to rerecord that because I forgot their name, but technically, if I show you kind of product so an example of a one of a kind painted bottle is this one by Shen Gufork. So if you see open it, you see the box like this.        

00:31:46
            

I spent it, then voila. Wow. That's gorgeous. Is it painted on the back also? Yeah, it's painted on the back as well.        

00:31:56
            

Let me show you.        

00:31:59
            

Is wow. That's beautiful. So actually, Shen Gufork is a very established painter. He's only 60 years old, and he's already selling painting a quarter of a million dollars to half a million dollars. So that's really rare, actually, when you're still alive, I guess, for an artist.        

00:32:25
            

And he had a French auction in Paris two weeks ago, and one of his paintings sold for 480,000. Wow. So, yeah, I was very lucky to be introduced to this gentleman, and he fell in love with the brand. He fell in love with the story. So it was kind of a natural fit for us to work together.        

00:32:47
            

So there's this one. There's another one that I'm going to show you from James Peter Henry is also incredible. So as I mentioned to you, cardinal Euphore wrote the first evidence of distillation dating back to 1310, so over 700 years ago. But the book that he wrote is today at the Vatican Library in Rome, and it's been there since the 16th century. So we were able to get copies of the first evidence of distillation.        

00:33:12
            

And what this artist did, he actually took the copies of the first evidence of distillation, and he actually sticked it on the bottle. So that's what you see, he kind of glued the first evidence of distillation pages that's really cool. On the bottle, and then he painted on top. So this one is also pretty incredible if you look at it.        

00:33:47
            

Look at this thing. Wow. That's beautiful. Oh, look at that hat. Oh, I love it in the back.        

00:33:56
            

Yeah. So we are going to use those bottles for charity purposes, because they can definitely have a beautiful story, and they want of a kind. Another thing I would love to actually mention also, that is really cool that what we did. We did a partnership with Dolage. Have you ever heard of Dolarge?        

00:34:16
            

So, Dolarge? From the 1920s to 1960s, there was two top luxury car companies in France. So there was Dugati and Dolarge. And in the brand kind of died in a way, because they stopped manufacturing cars for the general public and they were really focusing on racing and collectible cars. And recently, this gentleman from France refunded the brand and relaunched the brand.         

00:34:43
            

And he's a huge Formula One fan. And so what he decided to do, he decided to create 30 supercars that looks like a Formula One, that will be street legal and that will be the fastest street legal car in the world. Wow. I was lucky to be introduced to the CEO of the company. His name is Laurent Tapi.        

00:35:05
            

And we talked for a good hour on the phone and I explained to him my vision behind the brand, my vision behind creating a lot of awareness behind Armaniac. And he really loved the story. And the fact is, was also relaunching a new brand, like a really old French brand. He felt like it was a good fit for us to partner together. So what we did, we created some limited editions.        

00:35:33
             

Cardinal U. Four poor DeLarge. So cardinal U. Four DeLarge. So we created 30 supercars, so we created 30 limited editions that will be given as a gift to each car buyer.        

00:35:48
            

And on the side, we created 88 limited editions to sell to the general public. So I would say more like aficionados and more like car collectors. So let me show you what it looks like. It's actually a pretty cool bottle as well. Oh, wow.        

00:36:04
            

It's a different, totally different box. Yeah. So, yeah, it's a blue box. So if you look at it like CDF for the large, then the box, you can see like this. That's pretty definitely a little race car feel.        

00:36:28
            

Exactly. And you see the bottle. So it's the same bottle we actually did. If you don't see it, like the engraving at the bottom, I don't know if you see it. So we did 88 of them.        

00:36:39
            

So that will be sold to car collectors. And good news is that Dolarge just officially going to be participating into Leven Catholic. I don't know if you're familiar with Leven Catholic. So it's a big race in France and very prestigious race. And Delaj is going to be part of it this year.        

00:37:01
            

Wow, that was really cool that they actually thriving in the right direction. Where can people find you if they want to invest or invite you to be? Yeah, they can always reach out to me through Instagram, Cardinalju Four, or through my website, Cardinaljufor.com, or through LinkedIn. My name is Christophe Namer. They can even write Cardinal ju four are probably going to pop up.        

00:37:31
            

So they can easily reach out to me through those different channels. Well, Christoph, thank you again, and I can't wait to hear more as the time goes on. And what other collaborations you get together and I look forward to seeing your new products as well. Thank you very much. Likewise, look forward to connecting again and chatting more about Cardinal Ju and other product.        

00:37:57
            

World of Wheezy is up next. Stay with us.        

00:38:03
            

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00:39:07
            

Louise, it is so great to have. You in house today. How are you? I'm awesome. Fantastic.        

00:39:12
            

So I poured us a little bit of this Armagnac that I got from Christophe. That is so lovely, in my opinion. So why don't you take a little sniff? Oh my. Right.        

00:39:22
            

Got a little sweet perfume. Yeah, that's so good. Delicious. Takes me back to France, which I just came back from, by the way. Very nice.        

00:39:38
            

Yes. We had our eleven year anniversary trip. We walk a bridge every year for our anniversary. It's our little tradition. Because you walked the Brooklyn Bridge at your wedding.        

00:39:51
            

Correct. We got married on the Brooklyn Bridge. Awesome. So every year that's been our tradition. So this year I'm like, let's do it big.        

00:39:59
            

We went to London for a week, then we went to France for a week. We went to Paris. Nice. And so many bridges. I mean, in Paris, of course, Pontnif.        

00:40:09
            

On our actual anniversary day, we were in London. We had to do the London Bridge. Well, the actual London Bridge. Arizona or Nevada. Yeah, they moved it.        

00:40:21
            

They moved it. No. So what they call the London Bridge now is a whatever bridge. We did walk across it, but it's just a whatever bridge. The bridge that we walked on our anniversary was the Tower Bridge.        

00:40:33
             

The tower bridge. Is that's the one? That the tower double. Yes. That one is gorgeous.        

00:40:38
            

And we also walked the Westminster Bridge, which gives you this beautiful backdrop of Big Ben. And then we walked all sorts of other little bridges that I don't even remember what the names of them were. I mean, the Thames runs for a long way. Yeah, a lot of bridges. So this is like, bringing me back to this lovely excursion that I just had.        

00:40:59
            

It's very nice. So when you were in Paris and you just said that this reminded you of France, which I mean, it's French, it's Armaniac. Yeah. Was there something obvious that's why yes. Was there something there that you would totally pair this with?        

00:41:14
            

Well, odly, enough. I don't know, I feel like when you're in Paris, every single thing you eat, even if it's just like, the baguette from the corner, is delicious. Right. But what I was actually thinking of pairing this with was something that I had in London. So we went to St.        

00:41:34
            

John's restaurant. I'm sure many of your listeners know this place. It is amazing. And so we had our anniversary lunch. We had bone marrow and we had fish and we had all the things right.        

00:41:50
            

But when it came to dessert, we were both kind of full and didn't really know what to do. And on their menu, they have an eccles cake, which is really not a cake, it's more of a pastry, and it's really not sweet and it's not even very dessert like. But that is always something that I look for because I don't have much of a sweet tooth. So an eccles cake is basically a flaky pastry that is filled with a dried current filling that has all of the warm spices that remind you of a fruit cake at Christmas. And I know some people are like, EW, gross.        

00:42:25
            

I'm sorry, you're wrong. That's delicious. Also is this. Yeah, it's very fruity. Exactly.        

00:42:30
            

And so the eccles, that's what an eccles cake is. It's round, like a little hockey puck. It's not even pretty to look at, but it's very delicious. And it's traditionally served with a big slice of cheese, specifically Lancashire cheese. Okay.        

00:42:43
            

So you get this kind of savory, sweet thing going on, and honestly, the only thing that we were missing was this or something along these lines. But yeah. So my pairing with this Armagnac would be the eccles cake, Lancashire cheese from St. John in London. That sounds great.        

00:43:04
            

Book your flight now to that.        

00:43:11
            

MMM. Well, thanks, Louise. As always, it's great to get your opinion on pairings and food flavors, of course. And next time we have you, we're going to be talking about I can't say, but we're going to have a good time. Okay.        

00:43:23
            

Good to see you. Good to see you, my friends. For more information about Cardinal DeFore armaniac, please visit WW dot barrelroomcronicles.com for today's show notes that does it for today's show. To read notes on this episode or learn more about our guests, please visit barrelroom chronicles.com. Want to interact with the show or have questions for our guests?        

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00:44:16
            

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