Magazine Les Places d'Or LES PLACES D'OR 2018 | Page 25

L’épopée du packaging de luxe
à travers le cognac
The epic of luxury packaging
through cognac
Genèse du conditionnement
Flash-back : 1878, faubourg Saint-Martin à Cognac,
le verre a déjà remplacé le tonneau. Claude Boucher,
verrier de son état et directeur d’usine, invente une tech-
nique (primée à l’exposition universelle de 1900) pour
semi-automatiser la production de bouteilles. Les grandes
maisons exportatrices, installées depuis le XVIII e siècle
vont bénéficier de son ingéniosité pour mieux commer-
cialiser. Martell, Hennessy, Rémy Martin, Baron Otard
exportent leur breuvage conditionné et protégé par des
paillons. Le XVIII e siècle porte un œil plus esthétique sur
le flacon qui se forge en verre satiné, soufflé, moulé ou
en porcelaine. Les contraintes logistiques deviennent
à nouveau des facteurs d’évolution de l’emballage. Le
verre est trop fragile, le marché chinois en atteste. La
bouteille consommée est jetée à grand fracas, projetant
de joyeux mais dangereux débris de verre.
The genesis of packaging
Flashback: 1878, Faubourg Saint-Martin in Cognac,
glass has already replaced the barrel. Claude Boucher,
glass-maker of the area and factory manager, invents
a technique (awarded at the World Expo 1900) to
semi-automate the production of bottles. The big exporting
houses, installed since the eighteenth century will benefit
from his ingenuity to better market their products. Martell,
Hennessy, Rémy Martin, Baron Otard export their beve-
rage packaged and protected by straw. The eighteenth
century has a more aesthetic eye on the bottle that is
forged in satined glass, blown, moulded, or in porcelain.
Logistical constraints are once again factors in the evolu-
tion of the packaging. Glass is too fragile, the Chinese
market attests. The bottle, once consumed, is thrown with
a loud crash, merrily throwing dangerous pieces of glass.
Crystal, more luxurious, seems more appropriate then.
Straw or wicker baskets, rejected for export for sanitary
reasons, in the United States in particular, opens the way
to new forms of cardboard protection.
The introduction of the luxury case and the
sublimated label
The eau-de-vie conquers the world, its luxurious bottle
presages its superior quality, it only needs to look after
its image in its entirety, paying particular attention to
its labelling and its primary packaging. Richard David
Zaoui, then at Rexor, a manufacturer of metallo-plastic
films, testifies to the following evolution: “In 1972, a
meeting with Jean-Pierre Giraud, then Purchasing and
Development Director at Rémy Martin, marked a turning
point in the history of the packaging of spirits. I did not
have to convince him to replace the labels, marked
with bronze, by the technique of hot foil stamping. It
was obvious to him. His ongoing project, the launch
of the VSOP celebrating the 250 years of the maison,
would take into account this revolutionary technique.
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