The house was founded in 1858 by a doctor named Jean-Baptiste Dor, but it was his son Amédée Edouard the estate was named after 32 years later. He set himself the task of acquiring the best cognacs in the region, a mission which earned him the nickname of the ‘cognac dealer’. Jean-Baptiste’s son-in-law directed the house from 1922 until 1972, when it was bought by Bénédictine, who appointed François Mitterand’s brother Philippe Mitterand to run the house. The new owner took little interest in the brand and sold it to Jacques Rivière in 1982. His wife Odile became the cellar master, quickly taking to the trade and developing a real talent and strong renown among her peers. Odile died in a car accident in 1992 and her husband took her place as cellar master, alongside their son Pierre-Antoine and Béatrice Coussy. The house was bought by Unicognac in 2015. Although initially a bottler, it owns a few hectares of vines in Grande and Petite Champagne, and Les Fins Bois. The cognacs are distilled at a distillery in Chateauneuf-sur-Charente.

This cognac was distilled in 1875 from wine produced from grapes grown in Grande Champagne, the most prestigious cru in the appellation. After long ageing in oak casks, it was stored in demijohns in A.E. Dor’’s Paradis cellar. The range also includes other cognacs from the 19th century, often named after well-known figures from the era in which they were distilled, such as Napoléon III for an 1858 vintage or Louis Philippe for an 1840 vintage. This expression is named Prince Impérial, presumably in reference to Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, the only son of Napoléon III, the Emperor of the French until the fall of the Second Empire in 1870, and Empress Eugénie. Some of these cognacs fell below the legal minimum alcohol strength, but, as the house was able to prove this was simply due to their age rather than dilution, A.E. Dor was granted permission to bottle them below 40% in 1951.