Alexandre Gabriel
Alexandre Gabriel was born in southern Burgundy, near the medieval town of Cluny in France. Weekends in his youth were spent working on the family farm and that is where Alexandre’s great love of the land came from. His grandfather, a great influence in his life, made sure that Alexandre learned how to graft a tree, harvest grapes, milk a cow and harvest grapes. Alexandre remembers fondly, “For my grandfather, the only wealth is the one from the land.”
On his many trips through the Cognac region of France Alexandre discovered the Maison Ferrand in the heart of the Grande Champagne district of Cognac, where he met Mr. Ferrand.
“Cognac Ferrand was one of the oldest Cognac houses and at the time was totally dormant. It was sitting on good stocks of Cognac and Mr. Ferrand had one of the best savoir faire of the region, but was not selling anything,” says Alexandre. “There was more work to do here that I could have hoped for and when Mr. Ferrand proposed a partnership, I readily accepted.”
Alexandre Gabriel consulted his professors and decided that the way to polish this jewel was to build a good distribution network right away.
Alexandre graduated from business school and devoted 100% of his time to Cognac Ferrand, distilling and aging exceptional Pierre Ferrand Cognac and creating distribution channels around the world. Today he is the president and majority owner of this fine spirits house, which is headquartered in the 18th century Chateau de Bonbonnet he purchased from Cognac Martell