Merlet

Cognac producers don’t always make brilliant fruit liqueurs, and fruit liqueur producers don’t always make brilliant Cognac. Merlet somehow manage both, which feels slightly unfair on everybody else.

Based in Saint-Sauvant in the Cognac region, the family have been distilling and growing fruit since the 1850s, building a reputation particularly around blackcurrant liqueurs alongside Cognac itself. The crème de cassis remains one of the benchmark bottles in bars for good reason. Deep, intensely fruity and properly balanced rather than tasting like sugary syrup pretending to be alcohol.

The Cognacs themselves lean elegant and aromatic, often showing orchard fruit, spice, citrus peel and gentle oak rather than heavy wood influence. Merlet’s background in fruit growing clearly helps here. There’s usually a freshness and brightness running through the spirits that keeps them lively.

Bartenders especially love the range because the products actually taste of the ingredients they’re supposed to contain. Cassis tastes unmistakably of blackcurrants, apricot liqueur tastes of apricots, and the Cognac still feels like proper Cognac rather than a cocktail ingredient first.

There’s also something reassuringly French about the whole operation. Family-run, agricultural and quietly confident without endless luxury marketing attached.