Lema Da Casa Martell

What Is the Lema da Casa Martell

The lema da casa martell is historically rendered as "Since 1715" — referencing the year Jean Martell founded his cognac house in Champeaux, in the Charente region of France. It's not a particularly poetic tagline. It's essentially a date stamp that the brand has used as its central identity marker for roughly three centuries. You'll see it on bottles, advertisements, and packaging. That's about all there is to it.

lema da casa martell: a quick origin note

Jean Martell established his export business in 1715, partnering with English merchants who wanted a reliable supplier of fine eau-de-vie from the Cognac appellation. The brand eventually grew into one of the "Big Six" cognac houses. The "lema da casa martell" phrase itself — the formal motto — has evolved over time. Early marketing leaned heavily on the establishment date as a credibility signal. In more recent decades, Martell has shifted toward the bee motif (the "abeille" symbol) and phrases like "Continuez d'être fidèle à vous-même" in French-language campaigns, but the founding-date claim remains the most persistent element tied to the brand. I should be honest here: there isn't one universally fixed Latin or French sentence that qualifies as "the" motto the way, say, a national emblem works. Different markets have used different taglines over the years. If you're looking for a single authoritative quote to paste into a formal document, you're going to run into ambiguity. The closest thing to an official line is simply the brand's emphasis on its 1715 founding, which appears in nearly every piece of corporate communication.

How the Brand Has Used This Line Over Time

In practice, the "lema da casa martell" concept functions more as a brand positioning strategy than a literal slogan. You'll see it deployed in bottle design, museum exhibits, and corporate history pages. Martell's official website and their heritage materials consistently highlight 1715 as the anchor point. The bee symbol — adopted in the late 19th century, supposedly because Napoleon III awarded the Martell family the right to use the imperial bee — works alongside the date in most modern presentations. I've seen collectors and researchers get tripped up trying to pin down an exact historical quote from the 1700s or early 1800s. There isn't one. Cognac branding as we understand it didn't really exist then. The house marketed through word of mouth and trade relationships. The polished "since 1715" messaging is a 20th-century construction, even though the underlying fact — the founding date — is accurate. That distinction matters if you're doing anything rigorous with this information, like academic writing or a detailed brand history piece.

the bee symbol and why it matters

The bee is Martell's most recognizable visual trademark. It appeared on labels starting around the 1870s-1880s. The Napoleon III connection is part of the official lore — the imperial bee was a symbol of rebirth and continuity, which aligned well with a brand wanting to project longevity. You'll find the bee on VS bottles, on promotional materials, and sometimes subtly integrated into the label typography. It's not part of the "lema da casa martell" textually, but it's inseparable from the brand's visual identity in any practical sense.

Where to Find Authoritative References

If you need a citable source, your best bets are the Martell corporate heritage pages, official publications from the Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac (BNIC), and archived advertising materials from the 20th century. The BNIC maintains records of cognac house histories and branding conventions that are as close to authoritative as you'll get for this topic. I ran into a specific problem a while back when a client asked me to verify the exact original French wording of Martell's oldest known slogan for a packaging redesign. I spent an afternoon digging through archived trade catalogs and museum collections. The frustrating takeaway: there is no single "original" slogan. Different print advertisements from different decades used different lines. The consistent thread was always the founding date and the bee. My workaround was to present the client with the pattern rather than a quote — showing them how the brand's messaging evolved across eras, which turned out to be more useful for their design direction than a fake "authentic" slogan would have been.

Common Misconceptions

A few things people get wrong about the lema da casa martell: 1. It's not a Latin phrase. Despite how some websites present it, there's no classical Latin motto attached to Martell. Any site claiming otherwise is likely fabricating or confusing it with another brand.

2. It's not interchangeable with Hennessy or Remy Martin's taglines. Each cognac house has its own branding DNA. Martell's is anchored in the 1715 date and the bee. Hennessy leans into "Light as a Feather, Strong as Steel." Remy Martin uses "Always the Same, Never the Same." Don't conflate them. 3. The "Carry On" line is not the official motto. Martell has used "Carry On" in advertising campaigns, particularly in the UK and US markets. It's a campaign slogan, not the house motto. Campaigns rotate. The founding date claim is permanent.

what this means for practical use

If you're writing content, designing packaging, or creating branding materials that reference Martell, the safest approach is to stick to verifiable facts — the 1715 founding, the bee symbol, and the house's position among the major cognac producers. Avoid inventing or reconstructing a "motto" that sounds plausible but isn't backed by an official source. I've seen too many blog posts and social media accounts repeat unverified phrases as if they were canonical, and it undermines the credibility of anyone trying to do this accurately. The cognac market is competitive, and brand heritage is a real selling point. That's why getting the details right actually matters — not just for accuracy, but because consumers and regulators alike can spot fabrication. The BNIC has strict rules about cognac labeling and heritage claims. If you're working within the industry, those rules are your north star.

Bottom Line

The lema da casa martell isn't a single elegant phrase you can quote and move on from. It's a branding anchor built around a founding date (1715) and a visual symbol (the bee), reinforced across centuries of marketing. That's it. It's not dramatic. It's not mysterious. It's a house that has been around for over 300 years and uses that fact as its primary identity signal. Everything else is variation on that theme. For anyone doing research or content creation around this topic, my advice is straightforward: verify everything against primary sources — the BNIC, Martell's own corporate archives, and peer-reviewed spirits history literature. The internet is full of confident-sounding but ultimately unreliable claims about cognac house mottos and slogans. Don't treat any of it as gospel until you've checked the source.