The cognac comeback

• By Daphne Caruana Galizia

Cognac has been discussed so little of late that there is a whole generation of people who think it is the product brand name for a spirit that might be found in their parents’ drinks cabinet. Cognac is the general name given to the world’s finest brandy. All cognac is brandy, but not all brandy is cognac. The name brandy can be used for brandy made anywhere in the world, but the name cognac may only be used for brandy produced in the Cognac region of France. A decree passed in 1909 delimits the boundaries of the production area. Later decrees define the controlled appellation. The Bureau National Interprofessionel du Cognac is responsible for ensuring that these laws are adhered to.

Cognac is a drink with an ancient heritage, and it owes its existence to the River Charente, which for centuries was a trade route from France’s Atlantic ports to the city of Angouleme in south-western France, passing through Cognac. The wealth of Cognac was built on the salt business, and by the 11th century, it was a thriving centre. It was already producing a good deal of wine in the 13th century, but selling it long-distance was proving to be difficult. The open and flat landscape of the area, with its chalky soil, produced grapes from which only low-alcohol wines could be made, and these deteriorated on the long sea journeys to customers in the north of Europe.

It was English and Dutch merchants who discovered the methods that made brandy, when they tried distilling the wine to stop it spoiling during shipment, and stumbled upon brandewijn, literally, ‘burnt wine’. The name came to be shortened to brandy. When this distilled wine was left in the oak casks in which it was shipped, it improved with age. It was brandy. During the 17th century, the Cognaçais started the process of double-distillation, allowing the concentrated alcohol (or eau-de-vie) to travel in better conditions. The original idea was to store it in oak barrels and dilute it on arrival at its destination. It was purely by chance that they realized the drink improved with time and contact with oak, and was excellent when drunk as it was. Almost overnight, brandy from Cognac was big business, and salt came to be forgotten.

The Cognac region was then mainly Protestant. When the Sun King, Louis XIV, rescinded the Edict of Nantes, which had guaranteed until then the Protestants’ freedom of faith and worship, numerous families were forced to flee. They established themselves in England, Ireland and Holland, and became the original export network for the cognac produced by their relatives left behind in France. Trading houses set up in the 19th century began to ship their cognac in bottles and no longer in casks, and the system took hold. Factories in the area grew strong on the manufacture of bottles, boxes, corks and labels, but before long, a major crisis hit the region: the phylloxera fungus, which spread fast and destroyed the vineyards. The cure was found with American assistance, and the vineyards eventually replanted partly with American vines. Little by little, the industry took off again, and the Charentais re-established itself as a prime region for vines.

• The principal grape varieties allowed in Cognac are ugni blanc, folle blanche, and colombard, but most cognac is distilled from base wine made from ugni blanc, as it has the low alcohol and high acidity that are best suited to distillation.
• Today, internationally-acclaimed producers of cognac include Hennessy, Martell, Courvoisier and Remy Martin.
• A cognac stops maturing as soon as it is put into a sealed glass container – so cognac does not age in the bottle, but only in the cask. Its year of birth is far less significant than it is for wine. French law forbids putting a date on most cognacs, as the label should reflect the age of the youngest eau-de-vie in the blend.
• Cognac is usually served in a gigantic balloon glass, but that is not really the right way to do it, because this kind of glass releases the aroma straight to the nose in a concentration that overwhelms. Connoisseurs drink cognac from a smaller, tulip-shaped 13cl wine-glass, in which only 2.5cl should be put.
• Cognac should be stored upright, and should not come into contact with the cork. After opening, air may cause deterioration, so opened bottles should be consumed within weeks or transferred to smaller decanters with air-tight stoppers. The cork should be replaced immediately after pouring. Unopened bottles can be kept more or less forever.
• A VS or three star cognac is Very Special. It is at least two and a half years old. A VSOP is Very Superior Old Pale, and is sometimes called Reserve. It is between four and a half and six and a half years old. A Napoleon or XO is Extra Old, and can also be called Hors d’Age. It is at least six and a half years old.