Martell is a cognac house founded in 1715 by Jean Martell. It is the oldest of the "big four" cognac houses (the others are Hennessy, Rémy Martin and Courvoisier), who together produce most of the world's cognac.Formerly owned by the Seagram spirits empire, it is now part of the Martell Mumm Perrier-Jouët (MMPJ) subsidiary of the French wines and spirits conglomerate Pernod Ricard.Martell's flagship Cordon Bleu, introduced in 1912, was for many years the world's highest-selling premium cognac. By 2015 Martell was producing around 14 million bottles of its cognacs a year, making it the world's second-largest cognac producer behind Hennessy.