Christine Cooney, Co-Owner of Heavenly Spirits Imports, has spent years cultivating a portfolio of exceptional French spirits, including Cognac, Armagnac, and Calvados. Her dedication to quality and authenticity has made Heavenly Spirits a trusted name in the industry.

As warm Spring weather quickly approaches, we asked Christine Cooney, co-founder of Heavenly Spirits Imports about the topic of French inspired Spring cocktails and here is what she had to say.

It was a heavenly night for Christine Cooney. On October 23, the cofounder and CEO of Heavenly Spirits Imports, which specializes in showcasing and selling French spirits in the United States, was made a knight of the Ordre du Mérite Agricole at a ceremony in Boston.

L’apéritif. Or, l’apéro, for short, as in, On prend l’apéro, or let’s get/have a drink.

But while the phrase and the timing after work suggests the American happy hour, the French aperitif is so very different and so much more.

Celebrating 15 Years of Heavenly Spirits

To prepare for this National French holiday, we caught up with Dan and Christine Cooney, owners of Massachusetts-based Heavenly Spirits, which specializes in imported French Spirits, to learn more about this widely celebrated holiday.

There’s no dichotomy in spirits like Cognac. With a history dating back hundreds of years, the famed French brandy is led by gigantic legacy brands owned by multinational conglomerates.

Unexpected aging regimens and modern cocktails breathe new life into the spirits category

From humble beginnings to French knighthood

Christine and Daniel Cooney, the co-owners of the US importer of artisanal French spirits, talk about how they joined the sector, and the trends they’ve noticed recently.

From the very beginning, the Cooney’s mission was to represent exceptional craft spirits produced in France.

With a name like heavenly spirits, we expected something angelic and magical and they were happy to oblige. If we started to list the medals they won at Bartender Spirits Awards 2022, we’d be going on all day!

After a meet-cute on an eleven-hour flight, Daniel Cooney and Christine Foubert’s lives were changed forever.

For those who seek to commemorate a benchmark birthday with a bottle, Armagnac may be your best bet.

Armagnac: Best aged up to 50 years

Armagnac is perhaps the most wine-like of spirits, and so it makes sense that, at Vinous, we begin our foray into the high-proof world of liquor by looking deeply into this classic brandy from Gascony.

Fine & Rare, a restaurant and bar in Midtown Manhattan, recently held an Armagnac tasting to educate its servers and bartenders about the lesser-known French brandy.

At Heavenly Spirits, the emphasis is on quality over expedience. “The big houses,” she says, “do it because it’s all about money, but we do something different.”

The first page of Christine Cooney's history with Armagnac was written more than twenty-five years ago, when this Charentaise opened the door of several Gers houses, those of Dartigalongue in Nogaro and Delord in Lannepax.

Christine Cooney, whose Heavenly Spirits imports and distributes five labels of Armagnac and four Cognacs, says her business has been growing steadily over the last five years. “We attribute that growth to a general interest among American consumers in artisanal spirits from all over,” she says. “Even though that’s a term overused and misused, Armagnac is nothing if not artisanal.”

Armagnac will never see sales on par with those of vodka—or even other aged spirits like bourbon or single-malt scotch. But as the whiskey market booms and prices rise (especially in the U.S.) and drinkers increasingly look for spirits with a sense of not just quality, but authenticity, Armagnac is finally drawing more attention.

In 1985, Daniel Cooney and Christine Foubert boarded the same plane in Iceland and introduced themselves to one another. Christine, native to the Cognac region of France, and Dan, an Irish American from Southeastern Massachusetts.

“Taste is subjective; each person is different. The best way to learn, and to understand what you like is to taste a wide variety and compare,” says Daniel Cooney, co-found of Heavenly Spirits