The Cognac has been preserved in a remarkable bottle made of cut lead crystal glass, with the name of the producer and the vintage engraved into the mount.
This bottle features an accompanying green stone base with gilded letters, an engraved glass and a stopper.
They are all housed in a glass dome, which has helped the ensemble stay in mint condition over the past 328 years.
In 1696, Louis XIV was at the height of his power in France, having ended the Nine Years’ War by signing the Treaty of Turin.
King William III was still on the throne in England after seeing off an assassination attempt from Jacobite conspirators.
French and English forces were battling it out for supremacy in North America, while troops from the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire were clashing near Andros.
The Cognac industry was maturing by that point. The popular spirit can trace its roots back to the 16th century, when Dutch traders would visit the southwest of France to buy wine and other goods.
Unfortunately, the wine struggled to stay fresh on the long voyage back to the Netherlands, so French producers began double distilling wine, which led to the creation of Cognac.
Distillation techniques had improved by the end of the 17th century, and brandy from the Cognac region was recognised as superior to eaux-de-vie produced elsewhere.
This is the only known bottle from the 1600s still in existence. The producer gave it to Edmond Jaulin, one of the co-founders of the Jules Robin brand, and it eventually found its way into a private collection in France during the 1950s.
The bottle was rediscovered in 2018, and it was acquired by its current owner for an undisclosed sum. It was thought to be the oldest Cognac in existence, and that status has now been confirmed by Guinness World Records.
The Guinness World Record was previously held by a Cognac from Gautier, which was distilled in 1762, so this bottle has broken the record by 66 years.
That bottle fetched almost $150,000 at auction in 2020, by which point it was referred to as ‘the oldest Cognac vintage ever sold at auction’.