In 1791, a young Thomas Hine left his native Dorset to learn the secrets of how Cognac was made. Unfortunately, he found himself fleeing the French Revolution, before eventually being imprisoned for several months at the Château de Jarnac.
Fortunately for Hine, he found himself imprisoned in an established Cognac house and went on to marry Françoise-Elisabeth, the daughter of his hosts.in the good company of He assumed the family business from her father and gave it his own name in 1817.
Since then, Thomas Hine & Co has seen six generations of the Hine family run the business. In 1962, the House of Hine was awarded a Royal Warrant by Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II. Hine still remains the only official supplier of Cognac to the British monarchy.
The careful, traditional distillation process, complemented by rigorous grape selection and extended ageing in seasoned oak barrels is what makes Hine Cognac really stand out. The pairing of the native ugni blanc (trebbiano) grapes, teaming with exclusive flavours produced by the chalk and limestone soil, with Hine’s two trusted crus, the Grande Champagne and the Petite Champagne, help create a particular style and distinct mode of expression.
The cellar where the Cognacs are stored are two metres below the level of the close River Charente, This high humidity naturally engineers the conditions that lend the ageing process of this Cognac to develop greater complexity and structure.
Hine doesn’t simply rely on one method, however, and is known to employ an additional trademark strategy; aging vintage casks in cellars in Bristol, England. This alternative maturation process produces what is known as ‘early-landed’ Cognacs. A relatively constant, low temperature is pitted against the high humidity to induce early landed editions that will posses more delicate and light oak and fruit notes. The character is rounded by an aroma that speaks more to fresh flowers and orange peel - evocative of the traditional Cognac.
