Cognac brand Hennessy opens cafe with NFT memberships

Source: Observatorioblockchain / Jennifer Maldonado

Hennessy, one of the world’s oldest cognac makers, will open a cafe and offer NFT memberships for access to exclusive experiences. The establishment is called Café 11 and those who buy one of the NFTs from the collection will be able to access, among other things, the opening of the café at the Art Basel Miami 2022 art fair, which will take place in December. To carry out the project, Hennessy has partnered with Friends with Benefits: a decentralized organization of creators. The Hennessy brand belongs to the luxury multinational LVMH. 

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 The French brand of cognac assures that with Café 11 it wants to connect its 250 years of existence with the modern digital world. On its website , the brand explains that Café 11 members will have access to a bold new take on café society, inspired by 1920s Paris. Hennessy will also provide other digital experiences from the Web3 world through the aforementioned project. 

Hennessy NFT 

Hennessy will release 1,765 memberships in NFT format, to be minted next Friday, November 4, at 1 pm ET. In addition to attending the inaugural Café 11 experience at Art Basel Miami, members of this exclusive café will also receive an original commemorative piece of art created by New York artist John P. Dessereau. Each of these works will be delivered as a non-fungible token. In addition, members of Café 11 will receive a proof of membership and will have early access to each of the digital and live experiences that are organized around the world. 

Hennessy’s NFTs will be offered for around $450, reported Ledger Insights. On the other hand, the launch of Café 11 is the first collaboration of its kind between an alcoholic beverage brand and a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Friends with Benefits indicates on its Twitter account that it will receive 34% of the gross sales generated by the project in its community treasury. 

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Web3 Experiences

Although some companies are still reluctant to adopt NFTs, the expansion of blockchain technology and the promises of Web3 are driving companies to enter the digital ecosystem. However, this is not the first time that Hennessy has ventured into the world of blockchain and NFTs. 

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In January of this year, the brand launched its first collection of NFTs, which consisted of two non-fungible tokens of the limited-edition Hennessy-8 cognac. Each of these NFTs was sold for a value of 58 ETH. At that time it was equivalent to about $226,000 and could be exchanged for the physical version of the exclusive liquor through the BlockBar platform. That is, each NFT for a bottle of Hennessy-8. Owners of these NFTs even received exclusive high-quality cognac commemorative pieces. Among them, a commemorative sculpture and a storage chest designed by the artist Arik Levy, among other things. Likewise, Hennessy is using blockchain technology, through the Aura Blockchain Consortium, to ensure the traceability of its products. 

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Aura Blockchain Consortium is a non-profit association co-founded by LVMH in 2021. The organization aims to integrate the blockchain within the exclusive world of luxury, to provide transparency, traceability and efficiency throughout the chain. The LVMH company brands have been experimenting with Web3 for some time, through the blockchain and NFTs. Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Tiffany & Co., TAG Heuer and Hublot are some of them.