But you’ll have to pull some impressive strings if you want to get your hands on a bottle: Hennessy 8’s run will be limited to 250 carafes and the blend will never be recreated.

After 50 years with the company, Hennessy master blender Yann Fillioux is stepping down in favour of his nephew, Renaud Fillioux de Gironde, keeping the role in the family for what is now eight generations.

Hennessy 8 is named after those generations, as well as the eight eaux de vie, or cognac spirits, it contains. Fillioux chose the first seven of these, while de Gironde kicked off his tenure in the role by selecting the eighth. They have been perfecting the blend together for five years.

The cognac is presented in a hand-blown Baccarat crystal carafe of eight glass rings and a crystal stopper. Each carafe is individually numbered and signed by Arik Levy, the Paris-based Israeli artist who designed them, and comes in a copper-inlaid chest with four tasting glasses, which were designed by Fillioux and Georg Riedel 30 years ago and have been reissued for the release. (Read the delicious. interview with Riedel here.)

The chest itself is made with oak staves sourced from Hennessy’s cooperage, La Sarrazine, and consists of 25 layers, each representing 10 years of Hennessy’s 250-year history. In addition to the tasting glasses, the chest also contains an oak barrel wood pipette, a cork holder, a keepsake brochure, a dedicated key, a personalised authentication plate and a numbered certificate signed by Fillioux.

No wonder the entire package – which was officially launched at The Spirits Room at Harrods in London – comes in at almost $55,000.

Harrods spirits buyer Nick Fleming described the tipple as “exceptionally crafted”.

“The liquid is elegant, complex and portrays the perfect balance between purity of fruit expression and precision of wood management, which only servers to highlight what has been achieved by the master blenders,” Fleming said.

Australia has been an important market for Hennessy ever since the cognac was first imported here more than 160 years ago. The company commands an impressive 70 per cent of the Australian cognac market, which is undoubtedly a good thing for them, given Australians rank seventh in the world for XO consumption.