Not to be confused with Hennessey Performance Engineering

Jas Hennessy & Co., commonly known simply as Hennessy ( French pronunciation: ​ [ɛnɛsi]), is a French cognac distiller with its headquarters located in Cognac, France. Jas Hennessy & Co. sells about 50 million bottles a year worldwide, making it the largest cognac producer, supplying more than 40 percent of the world's cognac, a variety of brandy. The company is owned by Moët Hennessy, which is in turn owned by LVMH (66%) and Diageo (34%).

History [ edit ]

Brand ambassador Maurice Hennessy at a presentation of new cognac in 2011

The Hennessy cognac distillery was founded by Irish Jacobite military officer Richard Hennessy in 1765.[1] His son James Hennessy gave the company its name Jas Hennessy & Co in 1813.[2] During the 1970s, Kilian Hennessy, a fifth-generation direct descendant of Hennessy, became the CEO of Hennessy, succeeding his first cousin Maurice-Richard. Kilian Hennessy spearheaded the company's 1971 merger with Moët et Chandon, which created Moët Hennessy.[3]

Moët Hennessy merged with Louis Vuitton in 1987, creating one of the world's largest luxury brand conglomerates, Louis Vuitton • Moët-Hennessy or LVMH. In 1988, a management crisis led to the group's takeover by Bernard Arnault, owner of the haute couture house Christian Dior, with the support of Guinness.[citation needed] Kilian Hennessy remained on the company's advisory board until his death in 2010 at the age of 103.[3]

Marketing [ edit ]

Recently, Hennessy has tried to broaden the appeal of the drink beyond its traditional base of older drinkers by introducing new products such as "Pure White", "Hennessy Black"[4] and "Fine de Cognac" and marketing them accordingly.[5]

Products [ edit ]

Hennessy V.S

Privilége V.S.O.P

Hennessy X.O

Hennessy X.X.O

Hennessy Master Blender's selection

Hennessy Paradis

Richard Hennessy

James Hennessy

Hennessy Paradis Imperial

Hennessy 8

Hennessy Black

Hennessy Pure White

Hennessy Classivm

Collectors' bottles [ edit ]

Collector bottle Year released Description Notes Hennessy VS "44" 2009 Honor of 44th president Barack Obama Hennessy VS "NUL" 2010 National Urban League Hennessy VS "BOA" 2010 Blending of Art (five different bottles with two designers per) Hennessy VS "KAWS" 2011 New York graffiti artist KAWS design Hennessy Fine De Cognac and Tea 2011 Tea House Maison de Thé Théodor Hennessy VSOP Helios 2011 Gold Bottle (named after Greek god of sun) Hennessy VSOP "NyX" 2011 Platinum bottle (label glows under black light) Hennessy VSOP Kyrios 2012 Black bottle (3D label) Hennessy VSOP Depuis 2013 Red bottle Hennessy XO Odyssey 2007–11 Released every year since 2007 (2011 bottle sits on rock formation) Hennessy Kenzo 1997–99 Fashion designer Kenzo (subsidiary of LVMH) [n 1] Hennessy Red Book 2011 Levandovka filling Hennessy X Futura 2012 New York graffiti artist Futura Hennessy Luminous 2013 Brand name on label has luminous glow Hennessy VS x Scott Campbell 2016 Hennessy VS x Jon One 2017 Hennessy VSOP x John Maeda 2017 Hennessy X.O x Marc Newson 2017 Hennessy VS x Vhils 2018 Hennessy VS x Felipe Pantone 2019

Hennessy Literary Awards [ edit ]

Hennessy sponsors the New Irish Writing competition in the Irish Independent, and the associated annual Hennessy Literary Award, that has launched such Irish writers as Joseph O'Connor, Dermot Bolger, Patrick McCabe, Colum McCann, Frank McGuinness, Anne Enright, Hugo Hamilton, Dermot Healy and Neil Jordan.[6][7][8]

In popular culture [ edit ]

Hennessy is mentioned in hundreds of hip-hop, pop and kpop songs,[9] including "KC Tea" (2010) by Tech N9ne,[10] "Hennessey" (2004) by 2Pac,[11] "Hennesey n Buddah" (2000) by Snoop Dogg,[12] and "Love Scars" (2017) by Trippie Redd, "Boombayah" by Korean girl group Blackpink, "Hennessy" by Bloo [13], Digital Underground's "The Humpty Dance", "Pass Me Da Green" by Master P (1997),[14] "Moodz" by Blackbear, and the Jenny Lewis song "Red Bull & Hennessy".[15]

The cognac was notably mentioned in the chorus of the Drake single "One Dance" (2016),[16] which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.[17]

In the film Highlander, Connor MacLeod opens a bottle of Hennessy bottled in 1783 and mentions notable events that transpired that year. The scene at 1:06:08 shows an old label/bottle presumably labeled in 1783.

Notable consumers [ edit ]

Hennessy was the favorite drink of Kim Jong-il, former Supreme Leader of North Korea. Hennessy once reported that Kim spent over $700,000 a year on Paradis cognac.[18]

Notes [ edit ]

^ Produced for the Australian, Hong Kong, Indonesian, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and United States market. Around 18000 bottles were then produced, with the blue version launched in 1997 and the yellow one in 1999.