Maurice Hennessy, global Ambassador for LMVH
I travel a lot . . .and so does the cognac. I travel more for work, but my work is my pleasure. Sometimes I have to take my wife to travel too, but it's not the same.
Cognac is a very very small town . .. it's smaller than Cork, it's really a big village, with all the mod cons. But you have to like that. I did. And I was very happy there, it was a little kingdom for me. It's not as exciting as being in Paris, and it's certainly not as exciting as being in New York. But it is where I am, and it's where the vineyard grows. I'm very happy, there are always disasters.
When you cultivate your Irishness . . .you invent some Irishness, and you decide you recognise it. But Irish people are like all people. Some are nice, some are brutes. But there is a humour, there is a sense of relativity in Ireland that is interesting, where all things considered, nothing beats friendship. And the world can be falling down as long as the horses don't.
We have horses in the blood . . .and gambling in the blood. Not so much me now, I don't own race horses. But some of my cousins do, and my brother Frederick here – don't ask him "do you want a bet?", this is his thing. It's so Irish – that expression, do you want to bet? The Hennessy Gold Cup, it didn't used to be the big grand thing, it was a small race, where we invited our customers for a bit of drinking, a few sandwiches. Nice fun with the horses.
There was a spirit of riding when we were young . . .I think that the people who rode in those days (everyone will tell me I am a terrible snob, and they would be right) were great riders. Nowadays people who ride horses don't even employ the right words, when they fall down they never go back. It's not the spirit.
The Chinese call cognac wine . . .because its their word for something alcoholic. And they drink it like wine. They drink Richard Hennessy, and Paradis. I drink all of them, they are like my children.
I have three daughters . . .my children at this time they don't go into the business, but you never know. It's very different now, it's a company that is part of a big group, you don't need members of the family, it's run by professionals, who do wonderful work. I knew Hennessy for a long, long time when it was a little private firm.
So I’ve seen a big evolution to LMVH. I love it. But I’m me. Other people have different ways of thinking.
My father . .. was a bit better than me because he only would drink Léoville Barton red wine, and Duchesse de Magenta Burgundy and Château Goulaine Muscadet. I must say I have abandoned . . . well, Léoville Barton is terribly expensive, for a Bordeaux anyway. And I don't like Muscadet. I drink Bordeaux – but cheap. Cheaper than Léoville Barton anyway. Good traditions are good, but not useless traditions. And we mustn't be slaves of tradition, this is petit bourgeois.
You have to follow the fashion of the time . . .there are some great things and some sad things. Travelling is not as fun as it was 4 0 years ago, that's for sure. Now to go through an airport is such a pain. It's a pity, all the pleasure is gone from getting on a plane. So the wonder now is the train from London to Paris. I love the train.
I would never be without books . . .Luxury, I don't have, but books. Never travel without books. You must always know that whatever you have, cell phone, whatever, the battery may go, but if you carry a book, you can read whenever there is light enough to read, you can be in the world of the book.
I don't give houses to everybody . . .but it's just I had this house, Ballymacmoy, my brother wanted to live in Ireland, and frankly it's normal that he would live in a house owned by the family. When I gave it to Frederick it was poisoned gift. I was an absentee landlord, of course, and you Irish don't like absentee landlords, even if they are French.
Ballymacmoy House is in Killavullen, Co Cork, and is available to rent. ballymacmoy.com
In conversation with Gemma Tipton
