Cognac Expert has met an amazing man: Paul Ronne.

This 87 year old Parisian electrical engineer who came to the Charente in the mid-50s had spent the last 25 years building up the most incredible collection of thousands of Cognac labels, documents, posters, postcards, playing cards, fans, ash trays, miniature bottles, glasses, pen-knives, showcards, carafes, dummy bottles, old letters and invoices, and thousands of other ‘objects publicitaires’.

Paul Ronne (standing) in one of his rooms, showing boards

This came about, at the invitation of the heads of several Cognac houses, visiting their archives and attics to save these historical items before they were scrapped. When we say amazing, it’s beyond belief!

Boxes, boxes, boxes

Over 35,000 different Cognac labels, for example. (If you want to see more, take the time to browse all over his site, especially ‘Click here for more discoveries’).

Gigantic mini bottle collection of cognacs

And there’s even more on the French version of he site. Paul adds daily from his collection to the site, such as some from the thousands of letters and invoices showing the fabulous old art of letter-head engraving.

Boxes filled with labels and documents

What this man has in his head is beyond comprehension. He is a living, breathing historian and archivist on everything to do with Cognac. He is unique, indeed a treasure.

Old cognac merchant documents
And the most incredible thing? He gave, yes gave, almost all of his collection to the Ville de Cognac when in 2004 they opened the celebrated Musée des Art du Cognac. Although that seems to have been forgotten by the new regime.
Paul Ronne's work station with various collector bottles

This most generous act can never be properly appreciated. And today, as a result of Paul’s energy, the Cognac houses value their archives and collections far more than they ever did in the past.

Having been given Paul’s permission we will feature images from his collection.
Just incredible. Paul Ronne is the secret king of cognac.

Get articles like these and more:
Subscribe to our mailing list

The Man who helped Save Cognac's Cultural Heritage Single-Handed

Get our Cognac Guide in form of an e-Book for free. Weekly updates about our stories, new products and deals.

Avatar
Author

Max founded Cognac Expert in 2009, and very much into Cognac and French Spirits tasting, blogging & commerce. His topics are marketing, technology, startups, and business development. He’s also an organic farmer for wheat, hay and vines. A big heart for machines and tractors. Starting as a blog, today Cognac Expert is the world’s largest platfrom about all things Cognac, a blog, and a specialized online shop featuring 1500+ different Cognac bottles.

7 Comments

  1. Avatar

    As serious collectors of old cognacs and labels we would be very imterested to see and indeed buy some of this obviuosly fine collection. Please contact us for further information. DB

  2. Avatar

    I do not think that Paul is interested in selling collector items. He is a real cognac culture lover, but is not interested in money. Visiting him is a different story..

  3. Avatar

    Correct, my understanding too is he does not sell anything. Send Paul a message via the Livre’d’Or/Visitors Book on his site to see if a visit can be arranged. Now that he’d appreciate….

Write A Comment