Navan Liqueur - History

History

The history of the Grand Marnier brand began with the founding, by Jean-Baptiste Lapostolle, of a distillery in Neauphlele-Château near Paris, which quickly acquired a solid reputation for the quality of its eaux-de-vie. When Louis-Alexandre Marnier created his first luxury liqueur in 1880, orange was widely popular, yet also expensive and difficult to find . It took him years to cultivate the perfect oranges for Grand Marnier in his exquisite garden. This same garden that yielded oranges in St Jean Cap-Ferrat would later inspire a quest for the perfect vanilla – his great grand daughter, Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle, current President of Marnier- Lapostolle North America and creator of Casa Lapostolle Wines, chose the natural vanilla flavor to create NAVAN, a new liqueur founded on Grand Marnier's success. To uncover a widely popular yet rare, refined flavor, as a tribute to her great grandfather. NAVAN launched in 2004 in the USA where it is distributed by Moet Hennessy USA. It is also available in Canada, and the Caribbean. In 2008 NAVAN introduced a revised, less sweet formula, largely based on feedback given by bartenders and chefs.

By 2010, the Lapostolle family decided to cease making Navan. After repackaging and tweaking the formula, Navan did not sell the way the family had hoped. According to a Massachusetts salesperson, the news of the end of Navan production was a great disappointment to retailers and customers. "Once the word was out, retailers bought out the entire supply at Martignetti Companies, extremely fast. My thought was that had the product been marketed as 'Grand Marnier Vanilla' it might have met a different fate. I remember at the outset that retailers who tried Navan were hooked. Bill Taylor, a customer of ours and the General Manager of the Kappy's Western Massachusetts' stores at that time, commented when he tried it that he thought it was the smoothest cognac that he ever had. 'Smoother than some wines I've tried,' he quipped." Navan will be missed.