R¨¦my Martin Sales up 10% despite le credit crunch

    Sales of R¨¦my Martin's luxury cognacs are up 10 per cent over last year, despite le credit-crunch, according to Stephen Carroll, global market director for the family-owned cognac house. In the year to March, R¨¦my Martin recorded a turnover of €818m (£738), holding on to its ranking as the second-biggest cognac brand in the world.

    Pictured here is Pierrette Trichet ¨C the first female cellar master in R¨¦my Martin's 285 year history ¨C at the company's cellars in Cognac. Here she works with a broad palette of eaux-de-vie (literally: "waters of life") later to be redistilled and blended in barrels into spirits that are aged for more than a century. R¨¦my Martin's most exclusive cognac ¨C the Louis XIII is aged for 100 years ¨C takes three cellar masters to produce and costs a mere snip at £1,200 a bottle.