But its best years are still ahead of it
According to the Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac (BNIC), the industry’s trade association, cognac’s three largest markets are the United States (78.7 million bottles), Singapore (23.6 million bottles) and China (22.6 million bottles). Singapore has the distinction of having the largest per capita consumption of cognac in the world. It has the same distinction with…
Export sales drove the development of the industry, a feature as true today as it was three centuries ago
From the very beginning, the cognac industry was dominated by cognac houses that acted as intermediaries between the producers of eau de vie and their overseas markets. Many of the first cognac houses were founded by English and Irish entrepreneurs: Jean Martell was from Jersey, while Isaac Ransom, James Delamain and Richard Hennessy were all…
The deft hand of the master blender is critical to production
At first glance, cognac production seems straightforward. The local wine is distilled twice, aged in oak casks from a few years to decades and eventually bottled. In reality, it’s an exceedingly complex minuet where the subtle influences of terroir merge with the distiller’s art and ultimately flower under the deft hand of the master blender.…
The blend is at the heart of cognac and its formulation is the industry’s highest art form
After distillation, the new spirit is casked and moved to a warehouse where, depending on its intended use, it may age for a period of a few years to several decades. Generally speaking, cognac is aged in barrels made from oak from either the Tronçais or Limousine forests. The eau de vie is aged in…
The environment, including the chalky soil, is everything when it comes to producing the right grapes
Cognac begins as wine. Like any wine, it’s shaped in part by the environment in which it grows. Soil, aspect and climate, among other things, combine to create a unique environment, what the French call terroir. A wine, in turn, is a distinct expression of that terroir. In the Cognac region, terroir is, for the…
Fungi have great names – turkey tail, pigskin poison, honey mushroom – and come in all shapes and sizes
My local nature club recently hosted a mushroom walk. No, that’s not where you take your pet mushroom for a walk. We visited some trails in central Ontario looking for different types of mushrooms, poisonous and edible. We weren’t foraging so we left the woods as we found them, although many others go to local…
Our columnist's picks for Thanksgiving dinner wines
“Our life is frittered away by detail,” proclaimed Henry David Thoreau. “Simplify, simplify, simplify!” On Thanksgiving, many of us heed Thoreau’s advice and remind ourselves and our loved ones to stop fretting over little things and give thanks for the big things we too often take for granted. Yet, one area that seems to defy…
The traditional cognac houses have had to overcome grape plagues, the rising popularity of Scotch whisky, counterfeiting and war
Augier, the first modern cognac house, was organized in 1643. Today the brand is owned by French spirits giant Pernod Ricard. It recently relaunched the brand with a line of cognacs said to reflect the early style of the product. Over the two centuries following 1643, many of the leading cognac houses, including the big…
What is the difference between cognac and other types of brandy?
Cognac is a type of brandy produced in the Charente region of France, centred around the towns of Cognac and Jarnac, and stretching from the Île de Ré to the Gironde Estuary on the Atlantic coast, to Angoulême and the foothills of the Mastiff Central. The Cognac Delimited Region, the exclusive area where cognac can…
The ONE in the name refers to the speed of a reading – one second – with accuracy within 0.3°C (0.5°F)
Even after years of preparing steak, fish and chicken, do you still cut into your protein to make sure it’s cooked just right? I’ve used a typical thermometer, but I keep cutting meat on the grill due to a combination of concern about inaccuracy and my cooking ineptness. A good solution is Thermapen ONE by…