SPIRITS: Distiller, Olivier Blanc

“I WAS officially in charge of half the world of perfume,” says Olivier Blanc, leaning forward from his director’s chair. Born to a UN diplomat father, the self-titled “breeder of Cognac”, spent five years at the head of Chanel’s perfume division before launching artisanal house, Léopold Gourmel in 1972. “The family had been making Cognac as a hobby since 1961,” he says, “and I was the one that decided we should sell some bottles...” 

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