I sell things you really do not need at all!

What do you associate with the words "calvados" or "cognac"? Concerning cognac, the answer is easy: gentlemen sitting on leather armchairs in front of the fireplace - the smell of fine tobacco is in the air.

The picture shows Cognac Courvoisier L'Esprit in a decanter of Lalique crystal with an assemblage of ancient cognacs (oldest part of 1802). Why is there such a thing? Who needs it? Quite simply to answer: nobody, and that is why it exists!

I have my own cognac association: luxury. What is luxury? Luxury is anything you do not need to live. It is luxury what enriches life. The salt in the soup. The spice in the menu. The "art de vivre" and maybe a certain decadence. Your reward for working hard or just for doing nothing. The reward for the fact that you live.

The worst misconception concerning luxury is that it should be cheap. That is impossible because it requires a financial sacrifice and exclusivity in the sense of rarity. If every German would own a Rolls Royce, then this is not luxury any more. Once there was an English construction worker who saved all of his money for 30 years to buy a Rolls: This man really knew what luxury is! Anyone who travels to Thailand to buy faked Vuitton bags and a $100 Rolex does NOT know, because he wants luxury without the financial sacrifice. He wants a bargain, and - sorry - he will never be happy, because luxury is an attitude.

That has nothing to do with richness. You can drink a cheap brandy daily or enjoy once a month a glass of a 200-EUR-Cognac - the latter is cheaper. As a student, now and then I used to buy a first class railway ticket and enjoyed wearing jeans sitting among bankers in suits, while in the second class sections people were standing. Yes, that's selfish, but the ticket was a financial sacrifice!

Luxury is the conscious choice to indulge and to be generous, too. Bargain hunters therefore commit the worst crime: they treat themselves penurious! How awful!

So you better join a journey of discovery into the land of pleasure than to travel to the bargain outlet that offers great names with little quality.