There are luxury spirits, and then there is Louis XIII. At Rs 4 lakh a decanter (notice there are no pedestrian bottles for the king of cognacs, only decanters), Louis XIII sits at the top of the pyramid. So what makes it so expensive and why are customers willing to pay top dollar for it?

In an industry that usually measures ageing in decades, Louis XIII stretches the horizon to a full century. “It takes four generations of people to create this unique liquid. So, one human life is not enough. That’s why we say think a century ahead,” explains Morgan de Premorel, Director for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India for Louis XIII Cognac by Remy Martin, on his recent visit to India.

The result is a decanter that has come to occupy a singular space: part drink, part heirloom, part French national artifact.

Louis XIII was born in 1874, when Paul-Émile Rémy Martin decided to do something unusual. Instead of producing more and faster, he slowed down everything. He selected the oldest eaux-de-vie his family had been guarding for generations and blended them into what he hoped would be the house’s most ambitious expression of craftsmanship. Even the name was deliberate -- Louis XIII was the 17th-century king who first recognised cognac as a distinct category of brandy.

To add to the myth, the cognac had to be bottled exceptionally. Inspired by a 16th-century flask discovered on a battlefield near Jarnac, the Louis XIII decanter looks like something that could sit in a museum case rather than on a bar cart. Its fleur-de-lys motifs, the raised spikes, the glass stopper shaped like a royal finial: all of it is the work of artisans from Baccarat and other historic crystal houses. Each decanter is blown, cut, polished and numbered by hand. No two are identical, making it ideal for collectors.

Morgan de Premorel says that the brand’s longevity lies not in marketing but in the refusal to modernise away its own identity. “Consistency and authenticity are keys,” he explains. “The secret to keeping Louis XIII Cognac at the top is the fact that it’s a family business. We have a vision and we stick to it. It’s all about heritage, savoir-faire and transmission.”

Transmission is perhaps the most literal explanation for the price. Louis XIII is not a vintage, nor is it simply a very old cognac. It is a blend of up to 1,200 individually aged eaux-de-vie, each drawn from Grande Champagne grapes and stored in century-old Limousin oak casks. Every cellar master inherits stocks left by predecessors, evaluates how they have evolved and selects a fraction for the final blend. Some of those eaux-de-vie were set aside by a cellar master who may have died before the current blender was even born.

“Every decanter has the same and unique aromatic and flavour profiles as the very first release in 1874,” de Premorel says. “But each composition is different. This is the cellar master’s secret. Our cellar master uses great technical skill to keep the style the same as it’s always been, choosing from an ever-evolving stock of eaux-de-vie crafted and passed down across generations.”

The crucial detail is that a cellar master never tastes the end of his own work. What he sets aside will only appear in a finished blend in the next century.

The casks themselves reinforce that timeline. Louis XIII is aged in tierçons, rare old barrels made from Limousin oak with unusually thin staves that encourage a slow, oxygen-driven evolution. These casks can’t be remade today; the craft, the wood and the dimensions belong to an earlier era. The house restores them, carefully, when age requires, but cannot expand their number. That puts a natural limit on how much Louis XIII can ever be produced. Scarcity is not engineered; it is built into the infrastructure of the cognac’s creation, adding to its price and desirability.

For those who do manage to taste it, Louis XIII offers a sensory profile that experts often compare to perfume. An experienced taster can identify as many as two hundred aromas: dried roses, cigar box, figs, myrrh, leather, honeysuckle, honey, stone fruit. On the palate, the flavours turn warm and layered, with notes of cinnamon, almond, peach and orange blossom.

This combination of rarity and sensory complexity has earned Louis XIII a long list of admirers. Tsar Nicholas II, Queen Victoria, Charles de Gaulle, Barack Obama, Leonardo DiCaprio and a cross-section of artists, writers and musicians have all encountered the cognac. It was served on the maiden voyage of the S.S. Normandy, poured aboard the Orient Express during its inaugural run from Paris to Istanbul in 1883 and presented at world fairs like the 1900 Paris Exposition.

So, while the brand’s heritage, legacy and scarcity adds to its appeal for a mature audience, it still need to work to attract a younger generation. Younger drinkers are increasingly selective and less interested in rigidly formal luxury. To reach new consumers without compromising its centuries-long process, the house introduced The Drop in 2022: a 10-millilitre micro-bottle designed to be worn on a strap or tucked into a pocket. It looks more like a fashion accessory than a traditional spirit. De Premorel describes it as “young and hip and available at a price where you can buy it as a gift or for yourself,” adding that “the younger generation is drinking less but drinking better.” It’s priced at around 84 euros and is available in select countries, including US, France, UK.

Louis XIII is available in 22 countries with the US and China being its largest markets. Ankur Chawla, the brand ambassador for India, says that Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore are the primary markets in India.

What ultimately makes Louis XIII one of the most expensive cognacs in the world is not celebrity, nor packaging, nor even taste. It is the management of time. A bottle of Louis XIII contains not one moment of history but many, layered and handed forward across generations. It moves at a century’s pace. And it invites those who drink it to slow down long enough to notice.