“Cognac is something I’ve always appreciated for its complexity and richness,” says Idris Elba, founder of Porte Noire.
Idris Elba and The Porte Noire story
His brand, meaning “Black Door”, launched in 2020 with a Provence Rosé and a Grand Cru Champagne. By 2022, Porte Noire Rosé was the highest-ranked celebrity wine on Vivino (and still is to date). Porte Noire Cognac marked the brand’s first foray into spirits. In an interview with The Times in June 2024, previewing the spirit’s launch, Elba mentioned potential future plans for mezcal, gin, and rum.
His career shows he doesn’t do things by halves. He’s a Golden Globe-winning performer, starring in Luther, The Wire, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He ranks among the top 20 highest-grossing actors in the world. Elba is also a DJ, rapper, and producer who has collaborated with the likes of Skepta, Sean Paul, and Grey Goose Vodka.
He can add to that résumé: husband, podcast host, skincare brand co-owner, professional kickboxer, motorsport investor, activist and campaigner (particularly against knife crime), and developer of a 200-acre film lot in Zanzibar. He’s also an Arsenal fan, but we won’t hold that against him (har har har, classic bantz, etc.).
So, how does a man like that choose a Cognac for his brand? And why does he go for Cognac in the first place?
Idris Elba. But you knew that already.
Why Cognac?
Don’t get me wrong, I love Cognac. But it’s not the most celebrity-saturated category. Tequila? Can’t move for ‘em. Gin? Sure. Whisky? We have our fair share. But Cognac… not so much.
Paul McFadyen, brand ambassador at Maison Ferrand, played host to Elba and co. at their first meeting in Cognac, with master blender and founder Alexandre Gabriel. Barry Halstead (global brands director of Porte Noire Wines) and Elba believed he would represent the right kind of person to go into business with. The fact that Elba used to anonymously DJ at Trailer Happiness, where McFadyen worked, perhaps helped. He really is annoyingly cool, isn’t he?
I’m told that Port Noire only wants to work with producers with the right philosophy and ethos. The interest isn’t in being producers, but curators of drink makers who have control over every aspect of production, brands that can tell the story of the viniculture, the ageing, all of it. Even if they have size, they operate as if they were a farmer distilling their own Cognac. Maison Ferrand ticks that box. It now has its own sugar supply for Planteray Rum made in Barbados, has 18 hectares of juniper fields for its Citadelle Gin, and grows grapes for its Pierre Ferrand Cognac.
More importantly, Porte Noire wanted to know: who are these people? Are they our kind of people? Gabriel and his family live at the distillery site. Elba and co. stayed there, ate home-cooked meals in the farmhouse kitchen, and drank cocktails mixed by a local bartender who then joined them at the dinner table. They were hosted as family. That sealed it.
Have you tried Porte Noire Cognac?
The right Cognac for Porte Noire and Idris Elba
The quality of Cognac made by Maison Ferrand helps too. McFadyen says they were given a good brief from Porte Noire. Something accessible, but delicious liquid. Not a high-end, single cask only appealing to the existing Cognac drinker. Something that had great terroir, that tasted like the grapes we harvest, like wine, but was a very drinkable profile and ABV.
Porte Noir wanted to challenge pre-existing ideas of what Cognac drinkers are, too. Imagine someone in a nightclub in LA ordering something that tastes like the South of France, not a bland vodka. A drop for the whisky or rum drinker. We’ve heard this kind of ambition from celebrity drinks brands before. But Porte Noir seems better placed than most to deliver.
It’s a great brief for Maison Ferrand, according to McFadyen, because the brand has a similar philosophy for some of its own products. For Pierre Ferrand, most Cognac is made from 100% Grande Champagne grapes. These are considered the finest due to their high acidity, which helps them age gracefully over decades. Every very old Cognac contains them, as they’re the only eaux-de-vie that can withstand 40–50 years in cask.
For Porte Noire, some Petite Champagne was blended in, creating a Fine Champagne Cognac. This was to bring a fresher element, one that tasted like the harvest, a vibrancy that helps bring an overall balance that makes it appealing to a new Cognac drinker.
Porte Noire Cognac is already making waves
Something for the Cognac geeks
Porte Noire is labelled as a VSOP, and the youngest spirit in the blend is indeed four years old (the minimum requirement for the VSOP label), but the oldest goes up to 15-17 years old. These noble Cognacs add texture and depth. As do those drawn from humid cellars. This is a Cognac that combines both humid cellars and dry cellars, so let’s explain why that matters.
In a humid cellar (dirt floors, moisture from outside), alcohol evaporates more readily than water, so ABV drops quickly. These conditions produce lush, richly textured Cognacs. In dry cellars (concrete floors, less humidity), both alcohol and water evaporate more evenly, giving spicier, fruitier, more floral profiles. Porte Noire combines both styles.
McFadyen says it’s one of the things that makes Cognac so exciting. He describes creating it as a process of building so many levels of flavour to end up with something better than the sum of its parts. It’s why Cognac doesn’t do age statements; that doesn’t really reflect what’s going on in the liquid. Perhaps as an industry, this fact isn’t communicated well enough. Sure, Porte Noire can be described as a VSOP, but that doesn’t reveal the whole picture.
What Idris Elba brings to Cognac
It’s a picture framed by Elba, who has an interesting role here. We often talk about what a celebrity can “bring” to a spirit, usually in terms of exposure. Of course, you also get a flood of naysayers along for the ride. But McFadyen sees the potential. He points out that it’s a spirit Ferrand could make, but it’s had much more immediate success than the brand could have. That’s the power of Elba. It’s a power he can use for evil or commerical gain. But McFadyen believes he is using it to shine a light on an interesting sector in Cognac.
Look at the structure of Cognac. The big four – Hennessy, Martell, Rémy Martin, and Courvoisier – have a hegemony that no other category has. They make up 90% of the market. Hennessy alone is as much as half of that, and McFadyen says a lot of its consumers don’t think of themselves as Cognac drinkers. If your bar doesn’t have Hennessy, they’ll have a Jack Daniel’s with their Coke.
It’s a difficult market to break into, but that creates a target for an ambitious Cognac brand. So does the perception around it. To some, Cognac is still old men, leather chairs, balloon glasses. To others, perhaps they associate it with hip-hop. But does Cognac really have that reputation, or is that just Hennessy? It’s certainly a market Elba could have easily exploited: create a VS, low-cost, Celeby liquid. Do what’s already been done.
But he didn’t just go to a lowest common denominator producer. He went for wine first and then kept the grape, kept the France of it all and took a chance. That’s why Porte Noire could really matter. Every advancement of people coming in and helping to push Cognac makes a difference. Every new Cognac drinker is a win.