Homemade & Commercial

Wine, Beer, Spirits, Cider & Mead Guides

Alcoholic beverages; most commonly beer and wines made at home. Brews made from brewing kits purchased at shops specialized in spirits. The Beer Pirate features homebrew recipes, equipment requirements, and commercial productions information; and all the best practices needed to make that perfect batch!

The French Government has passed laws to protect the public as to what is and is not Cognac. It supplies every purchaser with a certificate, called an Acquit Regional [aune d’Or. This has nothing to do with age; it merely guarantees that the product comes from Cognac. The various qualities of Cognacs are generally indicated by stars: one, two, or three, in ascending quality. All wine people are superstitious. One of their firmest beliefs is that comet years produce fine wines. The legend goes that in the comet year of 1811, when a superb brandy was produced, one of the shippers decided to designate the brandy of that year with a star. An equally excellent brandy was produced in the following year and this he designated by two stars. By this time he had acquired the habit, but fortunately he stopped when he reached five stars. The firm of Hennessy claims to have originated the system. The stars on the label have no age significance. Each house blends its brandies for uniformity of quality, which is maintained year in and year out. The standards represented by the stars vary with the different houses. For instance, all “3 star” brands will not be alike, for with one house it might be a 10 year brandy, with another a 6 year brandy, and with still another a 20 year brandy.

Aside from the matter of stars on the label, all brandy houses handling better quality brandies use letters to indicate quality. And the letters, oddly enough, represent not French words-but English. They represent the following:

• E means Especial
• F means Fine
• V means Very
• O means Old
• S means Superior
• P means Pale
• X means Extra
• C means Cognac

For instance, when you see on the neck labels of a bottle of Cognac the letters V.S., they mean Very Superior; S.F.C. means Superior Fine Cognac, and so forth.

There is a good deal of misunderstanding about the question of age in Cognac. It improves in the wood for roughly fifty to fifty-five years. The cost of aging the brandy for this length of time is very high, as the losses through evaporation and the risk of aging too long are considerable, and make the ultimate selling prices so excessive that even millionaires would refuse to pay them. Once the Cognac is bottled, it neither varies nor improves. A Cognac bottled in 1900 will taste exactly the same today as it did the day it was placed in the glass.

The romantic nonsense about the 80 and 104 year old so-called Napoleon Brandies is nothing but a come-on for the gullible amateur.

The question naturally arises: “What is the best age for Cognac?” To quote the late M. Georges Roullet of Cognac, France: “Cognac is like a woman. She is at her best between the ages of 25 and 40.” He obviously knew Cognac as well as he knew the ladies.

From the consumer’s point of view, there are several questions which are frequently asked.

“What is Fine Champagne?” This means that the brandies have been made from grapes grown either in the Grande or Petite Champagne; consequently a Fine Champagne Cognac should be very good.

“What is Fine de la Maison?” In France every restaurant includes among its list of brandies a Fine de la Maison. This is its “bar” brandy, and can be anything the worthy boniface wishes to buy. More than likely it will be “everything but” Cognac, and will usually be a sound enough French brandy. It does not mean that it is “Fine Champagne Cognac.” When you order a “Fine” (pronounced feen) all you can expect is brandy of some sort.

As for the “snifters,” they are not best for the appreciation of Cognac. The large body and relatively small opening are good, but the size requires too much to be put into each glass. The glass should never be larger than one capable of being held and warmed in one hand. By the same token avoid the tiny, thimble size one ounce pony or cordial glass.

The question of bottles is also important. An old bottle means nothing. Distilled spirits do not change in corked bottles. Much better is an old brandy from the wood in a gleaming, newly labeled container. Large magnum bottles are bad. It is true that a bottle of Cognac need not be consumed at one sitting like a bottle of wine. However, it stands to reason that the larger the bottle, the longer it remains partly full, and the combination of evaporation and oxidation in contact with air in time results in a flat and lifeless drink.

A good test of a fine Cognac is to empty a glass after it has been thoroughly wetted on the inside by the brandy. The glass will retain its delicious aroma for hours, and even days.

The ancient city of Cognac, on the Charente River, is in the heart of the district which produces the brandies that have carried its fame throughout the world. In fact, they have done the job so well that Cognac is probably the best-known French word in the world. In far-off China, or deep in darkest Africa, the word Cognac will evoke smiles of recognition when any other French word would produce a blank stare.

The story is told of a certain Cardinal who was dining one day in Rome with several other Cardinals, all come to pay their respects to the Holy Father. One of the princes of the Church, turning to the newcomer, asked:

“Where is your See?”

“I am Bishop of Angouleme,” he replied, and then, amused by their blank expressions, he added, with a twinkle in his eye: “I am also Bishop of Cognac!”

Smiles lit up the faces of his brother Cardinals. “Ah, the magnificent bishopric!” they exclaimed.

The Cognac district, the Charentais, has seven subdivisions, which, in the order of quality, are:

1. Grande Champagne
2. Petite Champagne
3. Borderies
4. Fins Bois
5. Bons Bois
6. Bois Ordinaires
7. Bois communs dits a Terroir

The qualities which make Cognac superior to all other brandies are not only the special process of distillation used in this district for centuries, but also the combination of ideal soil, climate, and other conditions. While it might be possible for another section to reproduce one or two of these essentials, the combination of all the factors cannot be achieved elsewhere.

The Cognac region was delimited by law in 1909. The Grande Champagne is a small district which is the kernel of the region. In it lies the town of Cognac about which everything centers, the territory, the commerce, and the fame of the product. Almost completely surrounding it is the Petite Champagne. To the north, and situated about at the point where the encirclement of the Grande Champagne is incomplete, are the Borderies, the smallest district.

Completely surrounding these first three districts are the Fins Bois. Around all these are the Bons Bois. And advancing from the Bons Bois to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, one passes through the Bois Ordinaires and the Bois a Terroir.

If the Bordeaux system of classifying growths were to be followed, one might say that the two Champagnes plus the Borderies would make up the great crus; the Fins Bois, the bourgeois crus; and the last three, the ordinary crus.

The nature of the soil is limy, and the more lime, the finer the wines produced for distillation.

The grape varieties which produce the wine are predominantly the Folle Blanche, with St. Emilion making up 30 to 40 per cent of the total, and an even smaller quantity of Colombar, all white grapes. They produce a white wine which is fruity, thin, and slightly acid, harsh and unpleasant to drink, with an average alcoholic content of 8 to 10 percent.

In Cognac, the little farmer often has his own still. Big shippers very often own a vineyard or two but they cannot possibly own the amount of vineyard land they need to take care of the demand for wine to produce brandy to supply the world. It is the custom in Cognac, therefore, for all the shippers to buy the brandy from the farmer. Each farmer has his little vineyard, gathers his grapes, makes his wine, and distills it as soon as it falls bright or has it distilled for him by one of the regional distillers. Distillation of brandy in France and in Cognac is supervised by Government inspectors. They have padlocks and seals on every one of these stills. At vintage time the inspectors visit each farm, measure the wine, and tell the farmer how much he can distill from such an amount.

The grapes are picked, pressed, and allowed to ferment, then dumped into stills or alembics-skins, pips, and all. These impurities are necessary to give the full character to the brandy. The stills are the old-fashioned pot stills; there are no modern patent stills in Cognac. Naturally, when you have so many different men carrying out this process of distillation, you will have a variety, so each shipper examines and tastes the young, new brandy. Sometimes the farmers will decide to keep a puncheon or so of brandy, but usually they sell it as soon as it has been distilled. At that time, as with other spirits, it is colorless and has a sharp, but fruity, coppery bouquet and taste. This coppery character, “gout de cuivre,” passes after the brandy has been in wood for a year.

At the distillery, the wine is received in large wooden casks, demimuids of about 157 gallons capacity. As the wine producers make wine both for consumption and distillation, there is always the temptation to mix the lees and other deposits from the drinkable wine with the wine to be distilled. The new wine, therefore, passing from the receiving room to the stills, goes through settling basins where gravity draws out the excess impurities. The wine now enters the still.

The distilling apparatus consists of a simple boiler, heated directly by a coal or wood fire. On top of the boiler is a metal hood to collect the vapors before they pass through to the condenser. This condenser is simply a pipe coiled inside of a large container which is continually supplied with cold water to provide the difference in temperature necessary to condense the vapors which then trickle out into a receiving can. All the metal used in a still of this type is pure copper.

The conversion of the wine into eau-de-vie de Charente is accomplished in two operations: the premiere chauffe and the bonne chauffe. The first gives a distillation of about 30 per cent alcoholic strength, which is then redistilled to give the eau-de-vie. The liquid coming from the condenser commences at a very high alcoholic content which eventually goes down to zero when the distillation is finished.

The most important thing in the distillation of Cognac is regularity: regularity of procedure, regularity of heating, and regularity of quantity. The alembics work continuously, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, during the distilling season, which lasts from three to eight months, depending on the quantity of the vintage.

As it comes from the alembic, the brandy is colorless, has about 70 per cent of alcohol, and a fruity, coppery taste and smell which come more from the newly formed ethers than from the copper in the still.

Cognac is aged in casks made of “limousin oak,” obtained from the forest near Limoges. The cooperage must be very good to stand up for 40 to 50 years. The casks are laid away in light-tight cellars or warehouses.

In the cask the Cognac changes by action of the wood and by contact with the oxygen in the air which enters through the pores of the wood, between the staves, and by the bung. In the same way that the air enters, the brandy evaporates, so there is a continual, inevitable loss in volume. As the alcohol evaporates more rapidly than the water and other constituents of the brandy, there is also a diminution of strength, rapid during the first few years, becoming more gradual after that, the average being about 1 per cent per year. During this time the brandy gradually changes from a colorless state, taking on a beautiful amber tone, and the taste and perfume are changed, so that which finally results is a finished Cognac, a delicate mellow liqueur with a natural bouquet of grape blossoms.

Today the demand is for qualities which remain the same, year in and year out, and therefore there are few vintage Cognacs in existence. This requires large stocks being held by the brandy merchant, and judicious and exact blending.

This coupage, or blending, is done many months before bottling. The various brandies are put into tremendous oaken vats, brought down to shipping strength-from 40 to 43 per cent alcohol as required-by the addition of distilled water. Coloring matter (caramel) is added to assure uniform color in every bottle. Inside these vats, wooden, propeller-like paddles rotate from time to time, thoroughly mixing the brandies. In several months’ time, the blend, thoroughly “married,” is put in bottles, cased, and is ready for market.