A foothold in La Rochelle. Our ancestor Bonaventure Godet was a Dutch merchant and a long-distance sailor. In , he dropped anchor in La Rochelle to export salt and wine. The port town would soon become the birthplace of cognac. The land along the coast of La Rochelle is covered with some of the oldest vineyards in France. Bonaventure took advantage of these favourable conditions when he set up his winery on the banks of the Maubec canal in La Rochelle. Bonaventure was one of the first traders to distil their wine to preserve it better, decrease its volume and export it in barrels by the ocean.
Resulting from a technical necessity, this burnt wine, brandewijn in Dutch, was soon enjoyed as it was and recognized for its quality. This was the birth of cognac, not yet known by this name. In , Bonaventure Godet received a letter of recognition from King Henry IV of France congratulating him for the quality of his distilled wine and offering him his protection. He was given a coat of arms with three goblets and a star. This would permanently seal the union of our family with cognac and it is still used today on all our bottles.
Jean Godet took advantage of prohibition, which started in and prohibited the production, distribution or sale of alcohol of the American soil, to successfully develop a cognac distribution network across the Atlantic. Jacques Godet joined the Resistance in He was arrested and escaped to join the French army in the same year. A large quantity of the Godet House stocks was plundered during the Occupation.
Our cellars and vineyards were ruined. Only a few bottles were secretly saved in a walled underground cellar.
Some of these eaux-de-vie are still miraculously preserved today. Following the sale of our house to an American group in the s, Jean-Jacques Godet, our father, managed to buy back the company in , after long negotiations and thanks to his keen business acumen and an unbridled passion for the House of his forebears.
