The distillery was founded in 1982 by Ansley J. Coale Jr., a local rancher, and Hubert Germain-Robin, a native of Cognac, France.
[2] Ronald Reagan was an aficionado of Germain-Robin brandies and reserved a number of barrels for the White House that he served as a matter of national pride to visiting dignitaries, such as Mikhail Gorbachev and François Mitterrand.
[3] Initially, they primarily used locally produced Pinot noir, and they later added Colombard, Semillon, Zinfandel and Viognier to their stocks, exclusively sourced from Mendocino County.
[4] In 2006, Germain-Robin left the company to become an independent consultant and run seminars and workshops with the American Distilling Institute.
[4] Sales are low due to poor name recognition, high price of up to $600 per bottle, and the tendency of restaurant patrons to buy well-known mass-market brands from France.