THE  FAMILLE  LANVILLE

The family history began  long ago deep in the cognac region of Southwest France beside the 12th Century Benedictine Abbey at Lanville. The Abbey, which is now a protected historic monument, is dedicated to Saint Maurus, one of the greatest of all the Benedictine saints who, it is said, was trusted with a piece of the True Cross when sent to France in 543 by Saint Benedict. Legend records that the relic, sealed in an iron cask, is  buried somewhere within the grounds of the abbey

The Abbey of St Maurus, the patron saint of charcoal burners and barrel makers, is on the pilgrim’s route to the shrine of St James at Santiago de Compostela. Pilgrims on the route were guarded by the Knights Templars whose original mission had changed into a mission of guarding their valuables through an innovative way of issuing letters of credit. Pilgrims would visit a Templar house in their home country, depositing their deeds and valuables. The Templars would then give them a letter encrypted with a cipher alphabet based on a Maltese Cross which would describe their holdings. While traveling, the pilgrims could present the letter to other Templars along the way, to "withdraw" funds from their accounts. This kept the pilgrims safe since they were not carrying valuables. 

The abbey of St Maur (and the nearby Templar houses of Linge and Charme) provided such banking facilities for pilgrims  and employment for local families. It is thought that village that grew up around the abbey was  named after one of the largest of those families, the Lanvilles, who worked there for more than 300 years.  By  the early 1700s the family had prospered sufficiently to purchase land throughout the region and a branch of the family moved to nearby Les Cailletieres and began to produce the double distillation of  wine into an eaux de vie which the Dutch seafarers called "brandewiyn"  meaning  "burnt wine" and then   brandy.  Because of its superior quality the brandy from the Cognac region became generic  and, hence,  whilst all cognacs are brandy not all brandies - Calvados, Armagnac, Marc etc - are cognacs.     

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