Richard Frères

creation date: Jan 2025

In the 20th century, Richard Frères was an important house in Saint-Jean d’Angely. Its foundation date is said to be 1830, but a well documented source says it was founded sometime after 1850, when André Richard, who had a business in iron and charcoal, began to take an interest in cognac. In the 1910s, his son Philippe, who was already working with André, formally took over the company and it was renamed Ph. Richard et Cie, with his sons Charles and Achile joining him. A distillery was built in 1900, followed by a chais and an office.

When his sons took over, the name was changed to Richard Frères.

In 1912, the fourth generation joined the family business: Daniel asked his nephew Émile, aged 23, to assist him. Unfortunately, Émile perished in the sinking of the Titanic. Philippe and Jacques, the sons of Daniel and Charles respectively, continued to develop sales of the family cognac in France and abroad.

The company flourished in the first half of the 20th century. Five large new cellars were built in the 1940s. In 1959, the company bought Vinicole Charentaise, formed from the merger of Veuve Robert et Fils, Audouin Frères and Veuve L. Veau et Fils. In the 1970s, the wine cellars expanded again with the Sicard et Fils wine cellars in Rue Michel Texier, with which Richard has close ties. At the time, it also owned other brands from Saint-Jean d’Angely such as ‘de M. de Reboul & C°’. During the same period, the aforementioned Jacques Richard (1912-1996) became mayor between 1971 and 1977.

In 1987, Richard, once the most successful cognac house in town, was in turn sold to Cognac-based Compagnie Commerciale de Guyenne. The buildings on rue Élysée-Loustalot were taken over by the cognac company Chabasse and a medical laboratory. The cellars on rue Michel-Texier were bought by CCG.

Michel Coste merged Richard Fères with Reau Frères, which he had also bought, to form Reau-Richard Frères. Ths was essentially a holding company for some other small brands and was liquidated in 1984.

Brand names that were bought by Richard Frères: