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Otard Cognac Visit

Last month I took a big trip to Cognac to learn about cognac. One of the many houses I visited was Otard. This cognac house is located in the former fortifying castle of Cognac in which Francois the First was born, on the Charente River next door to Hennessy.

A tour of Otard is part castle and city history tour, and part cognac tasting. The castle dates back centuries, but my interest really begins when it was purchased by the Otard family after the French revolution.

In the basement of the building are the aging cellars. As the river is running right next to the building, the cellars have 90 percent humidity, which the cellar master likes very much.

Otard buys eau de vie from the first four delimited regions- Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies, and Fine Bois. On this visit we were able to taste raw spirit from three of them. As noted previously, grapes from the Fine Bois produce spirit that is fruity and aromatic right off the bat, but does't age well for long periods of time. You'd could definitely taste this as a fruity, tasty grape spirit.

The raw spirit from Grande Champagne was what I'd call tight- seems like you'd want to dilute it a bit to release the aromas. This they tease out after aging in oak. The spirit from the Borderies was, as it's supposed to be, very floral like lily or violet. Many brands use Borderies spirit to add this flavor to their blends.

Otard is available in the US but not widely so. They do a lot of business at duty-free shops and in Europe, Scandinavia, and Russia.

Otard also has a release Otard 55 that San Francisco bartenders recommended I try, as it is "natural strength" at 55 percent alcohol compared with the usual 40. This could be great for mixing into cocktails, but I'm afraid I have bad news guys: This bottling is being discontinued, as they say there was too much consumer confusion about it. Maybe they should have labeled it "Bartender's Blend" instead…

October 8, 2009
A Visit to Courvoisier Cognac

On a recent trip to France, I stopped in to Courvoisier cognac for a visit. Courvoisier is located not in the city of Cognac, but in Jarnac- one of the two other main cognac towns along with Segonzac. Jarnac appears to be a bigger city than Cognac and looks a bit more lively. I popped in to the tourism office and was told they don't really have any hotels in the city itself, just bed and breakfasts. The real hotels are the fancy chateaus a few miles outside the city.

Courvoisier dominates the Charente river waterfront here as Hennessy does in Cognac. Can you believe this picture isn't a postcard?

The house of Courvoisier is just as beautiful inside as it appears on the outside, though they have a bit of Napoleon overdose in the design theme. Courvoisier was the official supplier of cognac to Napoleon or some such, and they really are running with that. In the visitor's center downstairs, they even have one of his famous hats. (Branding suggestion to Courvoisier: make the Napoleon hat the bartender's new fedora.)

Courvoisier only purchases grapes for its cognac from the inner four delimited cognac regions- Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies, and Fine Bois. They own two distilleries but work with several others to produce the eau de vie that will go into their bottles.

A unique thing about Courvoisier is that they pick out the trees that are used to make their barrels, then have them built especially for their use. (Most companies just buy barrels.) They use the traditional Limousin and Troncais forest trees, along with some from Jupille.

While there, we were treated to the La Nez de Courvoisier experience. Basically they take you into a groovy lounge, blindfold you, and blow smells in your face. You have a glass of cognac in front of you and the goal is to try to identify those same aromas in the cognac. They're bringing the La Nez de Courvoisier on the road in the US, but by the time you read this post they will all have happened.

October 7, 2009
Cognac Pierre Ferrand Visit

One night on a recent visit to France, I visited Cognac Pierre Ferrand. It was awesome.

Our group had the good fortune to visit Ferrand on the first day of the cognac harvest, and the bad fortune to arrive so late that we missed seeing it. Alas. Still, we had a tour of the still room where during the winter the pot stills run for 24 hours a day. Ferrand actually has three brands of cognac that include Landy and Gabriel, with Ferrand as the flagship brand.

The stills at Ferrand are a little different, as two of them have "spirit safes" on them. These enclosures are required by the government to ensure that all tax is collected on spirit products, but they're not usually required on cognac stills. At Ferrand they make Citadelle gin in the off season, so they had to have the safes installed.

Ferrand releases blended cognacs without age statements, along with some very old single vintage cognacs including one from 1914. However, they're particularly proud of a more recent vintage 1972 cognac that's a new release to the market. And delicious. Also in the line is Selection des Anges, bottled at the point where the angel's share (that which evaporates out of aging casks) is greater in proportion to what's left.

Speaking of aging, I was going to talk about dry versus humid cellars, or chais. When cognac ages in humid cellars like those along the Charente river, alcohol evaporates out of the casks at a faster rate than water (much like distillation), and the spirits in the barrel loses alcohol content over the years. The good news is that because of this, flavors are more concentrated in the spirit and it needs less dilution to reduce the cognac to bottle strength, which is nearly always 40 percent alcohol by volume. Dry cellars (often located upstairs in the same aging buildings) are hotter and water evaporates more rapidly, so the cognac retains or even gains percentage of alcohol by volume. One blender described the dry cellars as producing dryer and more subtle cognac, while the stuff aged in humid chais was more fruity and flavorful.

After the tour of the distillery and cellars, we drove to the very modern blending facilities, which happen to be located behind brand owner Alexandre Gabriel's rather fabulous house.

We had a long and very fun dinner inside and that, friends, was a great night.

October 6, 2009
Cognac Frapin Visit

A few weeks ago I went to France to learn about cognac. One of the stops was the house of Cognac Frapin.

Frapin sells only estate-grown/distilled/aged cognac, produced in the Grande Champagne delimited region of the cognac area near the town of Segonzac.

Frapin is a massively impressive operation from the cellars to the blending room designed by Mr. Eiffel (yes that one) to the bangin' castle they own where we had lunch.

We first looked at the bottles, which are unusual for a few reasons. First of all, they sell not only vintage cognacs but multi-vintage cognacs of their "Multimilleseme" line with the three vintages in each. The years are listed on the labels.

To sell vintage-dated cognac, the brand must be able to prove that it comes from the year on the label. As the government didn't track this until relatively recently, this was a hard thing to prove, but some brands like Frapin clearly had their paperwork in order.

One thing I didn't notice until I looked on their website it that they have one bottling with a minimum age statement- "15 years old" stating that the youngest cognac in the bottle is 15 years old. I didn't know this was legal in cognac but I guess they are able to prove it. (Other brands have vintage dates like 1980 but not usually a minimum vintage- only a single vintage.)

I stated in a previous post that the aging process for cognac is a dynamic one and I think the product description (taken from the website) of the 15 year old really demonstrates what a cognac can go through before it hits the bottle:

Aging: Only 6 months in new oaks from Limousine area to preserve the fruit and characteristic of the Cognac. Then, 10 years in red casks (5 years old cask). Aged 8 years in dry chai and 2 years in humid chai. Then the cognac is blended with older cognac Grand Champagne from Frapin to add complexity from the very old Eu de Vie and aged a other 5 years in very old cask in a humid chai to mature the blend.

What is the difference between a dry chai and a humid chai? More on than in a later post. Also more on the dusty cellars later. The spiderwebs in cognac cellars are not a bug but a feature.

After the cellar tour, we had lunch at the Chateau de Fontpinot that is, as it looks, rather lovely.

October 5, 2009
A Cooperage in Cognac

I've been to nearly 50 distilleries of all kinds of spirits, but a few weeks ago was my first visit to a real cooperage- finally! Vicard Tonnelleries is a 6th generation cooperage near Cognac in France, where they produce 60,000 French, Eastern European, and American oak barrels each year.

American oak? Yes indeed. They buy trees in the US, let them dry a bit (I believe they said they're split into staves in the US), ship them to France and make barrels out of them there. Then some of them are shipped back to the US and other countries for use.

Speaking of drying barrels, American oak staves only have to dry for two years, while French oak dries for I believe four years. At this cooperage all staves are air-seasoned (left to dry outdoors) while in the US many are dried in kilns.

American oak barrels were described as aromatic and useful in short aging of spirits, whereas French oak barrels have more tannins, add structure to wine and spirits, and are better for long aging. French oak barrels are more expensive, but that's also in part because they're cut differently than American oak barrels. French oak staves are cut so that only 30 percent of the log is used, whereas American oak staves use the opposite- 70 percent.

This huge cooperage is very automated, yet dozens of workers end up working on every barrel. The cooperage has machines and staging areas for splitting logs, further splitting, making staves, assembling barrels, making lids, installing lids, toasting barrels, testing, labeling, and I'm sure many other processes. During and between each one, a worker is on hand to do physical tasks as simple as moving barrels and as complicated as fitting a lid.

When a barrel is assembled by hand, staves are placed into a circle with one or two hoops around the bottom, then the top staves are pulled closer together by fitting a cable around the top staves, heating the inside of the barrel staves with fire, and cooling the outside with water while pulling the cable tight. Here though, the half-assembled barrel goes into a giant steam machine and the cable is tightened automatically. When it comes out, the cooper fits the top hoop and tightens it on.

They also make some gigantic barrels of the sort you'd use for blending, fermenting, and storage. I think one would make an awesome cottage for the backyard, but then again I'm basically 12 years old and want to build a fort.

October 2, 2009
A Visit to the House of Remy Martin Cognac

In France recently, I had a tour and dinner at the house of Remy Martin in Cognac. They don't allow photography in the cellar, so this post is a little light on the pictures. (Suck it up and read.)

We entered the building at night so it's hard to recall exactly what the house complex looks like, but if memory serves me right the buildings (almost a campus) was a combination of old and new architecture, the traditional tan stone buildings integrated with new glass-heavy buildings. We did a walk through of the distilling demonstration and aging cellars, then headed upstairs for a meal.

Remy's products are made from grapes grown in either the Grande Champagne or Petite Champagne regions. The VS product is 100% Petite Champagne,the higher end products are 100% Grande Champagne, and everything in the middle is a blend of the two regions. (The above picture is the blending room, by the way.)

A blend of at least 51% Grande Champagne and the rest Petite Champagne may be labeled as "Fine Champagne" on the bottle, and most of Remy's bottles are. As can be seen on the descriptions of the range here, each successive bottling labeled as Fine Champagne has a higher percentage of Grand Champagne than the last.

The real surprise of the night was the pre-dinner lounge with passed fish appetizers and the new Remy Ice Boxx. When the cognac (We had the VSOP- not sure if the VS is standard) was chilled to -18C in these machines it was surprisingly flavorful and nutty and not at all what I expected.

Cognac as the new Jager? I can't wait to see how this turns out.

September 30, 2009
Cognac Tesseron Visit

While in France recently I visited the cognac house of Tesseron. This brand is notable for having probably the second largest collection of old cognacs in demijohns in all of Cognac.

Cognac can only age for so long in barrel before the spirit becomes flabby and loses its aromatic qualities. For cognac made from grapes grown in the Grande Champagne (the growing area producing grapes that age the longest), most cognac caps out at no more than 75 years in wood, though there are exceptions. After that point, the spirit is transferred to glass demijohns- round bottles about the size of a water cooler refill. These are stored in what is called the Paradis cellar at each house, and a visit to the paradis is a part of every cognac house tour.

The cellars at Tesseron date back to the 13th century and were once part of a crypt of the local church. We visited two cellars and saw rows and rows of cognacs dating to the 1860's- and were lucky enough to be able to sample some. This time is just as Phylloxera came to the region, destroying nearly all the vines in Cognac. These old grape vines were of a different variety than the Ugni Blanc planted today, so being able to taste them is quite special.

Like many brands, Tesseron has a long history of selling its unaged and aged eau de vie to the big houses, but then decided to sell some under its own name. The brand Tesseron was launched in 2003 and releases only products XO and above in age- no VS or VSOP.

Tesseron has several releases that would be vintage-dated but this is not legal in cognac unless the dates can be absolutely proven. (More on this in a future post.) Brands like Tesseron try to get around this by not labeling the bottles but letting people know what's in it. They label their bottles "Lot 90" "Lot 76" and so on, to imply the date of the cognac, but I did not verify with the brand that everything in the bottle comes from the year of the "lot" on the label and older.

Tesseron also sells cognac in 1.75 Liter bottles, which is fun. They have both the "lot" line and these sexy round "Extreme" line bottles shaped like a round demijohn. I think the black one would look particularly good in my apartment. (It's the holiday season coming up, I'm just sayin'.)

September 28, 2009
Cognac Visit: Bache Gabrielsen

While in the Cognac region of France, I stopped in to cognac house Bache Gabrielsen for a visit. I was greeted by fourth-generation family member Herve Bache-Gabrielsen and taken to their tasting room around a wooden table in the upstairs office.

Bache Gabrielsen is located on a small, nondescript street in Cognac. There are few signs to identify that the street holds buildings for blending, aging, bottling, and other storage. The company owns other warehouses as well (it's not safe or legal to hold too much cognac within the city- fire would be a very bad thing) but the white buildings on a narrow side street give no clue as to their rather large storage capacity indoors.

The brand is Norwegian though they've been in Cognac for 100 years, and still their largest markets are Norway and other Scandinavian countries. It turns out that Norway consumes the most cognac per person in the world. Who knew?

Herve also said that there is currently a glut of sorts of aging barrels due to a past overproduction of cognac and a previous economic collapse. Thus there is a lot of 20+ year old cognac sitting around in barrels that producers are using in their XO products. Eventually though this glut will dry up and he predicts it may be hard for some producers to maintain a consistent flavor profile in their products when there is less older eau de vie around to go into them.

Smaller brands like Bache Gabrielsen have both problems and opportunities in the market. They can release small batch products without the overhead and marketing support of larger brands, but on the other hand they are selling so much less it may be hard to educate consumers on what they're drinking.

Bache Gabrielsen has two cognac lines that they call Classic and Pure and Rustic. The Classic line, like most all cognacs, has caramel added for color consistency and sugar to soften the spirit, but the Pure and Rustic line (that is called "Natur and Eleganse" in the US) has neither. I found it definitely had a stronger alcohol attack on the tongue and was a more 'raw' tasting spirit, but not in a bad way- more like rye whiskey as opposed to bourbon. (I wonder if it might mix better in cocktails than most cognac.) I thought the XO was a particularly good balance between alcohol sharpness and wood softness.

All in all, it was great to see this small house hidden on a narrow street within the city limits, doing something new in old Cognac.

September 24, 2009
A Day at Hennessy

The first stop on a big trip to Cognac, France last week was Hennessy. I met up with my host Cyrille at the Hennessy office, one of the Hennessy buildings that dominates the waterfront on the Charente River in the small city of Cognac.

First we talked a bit about sales. Hennessy sells the most of their youngest expression, the VS, totaling something like 80 percent of sales volume, and most of that is to the US. The US generally consumes most congnac at the VS level, whereas in Asian markets consumers in particular tend to drink VSOP and older expressions.

Next we headed to the vineyards and distillery. Hennessy owns several hectares of vineyard along with some distilleries and even forests, but these don't make up very much of their total production. These facilities are partially for testing and experimentation.

As with most cognac houses, Hennessy buys most of their eau de vie on the open market or through winegrowers with whom they have contracts. They avoid buying from the Bois Ordinaires and Bon Bois regions, concentrating on the four innermost growing regions for their purchases even in their VS and VSOP blends. Hennessy uses the typical Ugni Blanc and Folle Blanche grapes, and is encouraging their growers to look into Folignan as well.

All in all, the Cognac region has 70,000 hectares of vines on about 6000 properties (6000 winegrowers) and Hennessy alone deals with about 2000 growers. There are about 120 professional distillers in cognac, which prepare the eau de vie for the 150 cognac houses.

Hennessy doesn't own a barrel building cooperage, but instead one for barrel repair. That was our next stop. As barrels are always stored on their side with the bung hole facing up, even non-perfect staves can still be used for the bung stave. As is also common, Hennessy uses several sizes of barrels, larger ones for older cognacs as they have a smaller cognac-to-wood ratio.

We traveled next back into town and across the Charente river by boat from the main Hennessy building are some of the aging warehouses. There they age eau de vie in batches labeled with the distillery or vineyard and the year. As the eau de vie evaporates out of casks, young ones destined for VS are topped up with water, while older ones are topped up with the liquid from one sacrificial barrel from the same batch.

I then tasted through the line, along with some new-make spirit and some older unblended eau de vie. I learned that some eau de vies are identified right off the still as special and are not put into new barrels to add structure as they already have it, but are moved right to used ones for long aging. Thus at the point of distillation, much of the eau de vie is being selected as to whether it will sit in a barrel for two or twenty years.

Hennessy is located in Cognac and is open for daily tours most of the year, or one can just visit the gift shop downstairs and the display of advertising from the last 100 years upstairs.

September 22, 2009
All About Cognac

I went to Cognac last week to learn about cognac. I learned a lot.

So what is cognac, anyway?

Cognac is an aged brandy distilled from grapes in the Charente region of France.

The Cognac region is separated into six delimited subregions based primarily on the makeup of the soil: Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies, Fine Bois, Bons Bois, and Bois Ordinaires. The Grande and Petite Champagne regions have the most chalky soil.

Planted in the region is mostly Ugni Blanc grapes, with others like Folle Blanche and Columbard sometimes also used to make cognac. These grape varieties make horrible table wine, but are good for distillation. They are high in acid and low in alcohol content at harvest. The flavors in this largely neutral grape are concentrated through distillation and are teased out over aging in oak barrels.

Grapes grown in the Grande and Petite Champagne region are able to age a long time, while those from the outer regions need less time in wood to show their full and fruity potential. Thus many brands reserve their Grande and Petite Champagne-produced barrels for their longer-aged blends.

First the grapes must be harvested in the fall, then fermented into wine and distilled. Most harvesting is mechanical. Fermentation is started with yeast recommended by the government. Distillation runs through the winter and must legally be finished by the end of March, though most are finished far sooner. Cognac must be twice distilled in pot stills limited in size to 25 hectoliters in usable volume.

Most cognac is aged in oak from the French Limousin or Troncais forests, and purchased from the government-run forest agency. Most of the trees used for barrels are 100 years old. French oak is high in tannins that help spirits age longer and add structure to the mouthfeel of the finished product.

The aging process is not as static as you might think. First, newly made spirit is added to newish (up to 3-5 years old) barrels as these contain the most tannins. Depending on the cognac house and the previous number of uses of the barrel, the spirit may sit in new barrels for just a couple months to more than a year. Then the spirit is moved to old barrels where the tannins in the wood have less effect, but the porousness of wood allows continued interaction with the outside world via oxidation and evaporation.

Most all cognac is a blend of aged spirit (eau de vie) from many vineyards and many different vintages. It is the master blender's job to ensure consistency of a blended cognac product despite a big variation in the individual eau de vies that go into it.

Cognac labeled VS must be a minimum of 2 years, VSOP has a 4 year minimum, and Napoleon and XO have a six year minimum though this is being raised to 10 years for XO in 2016 (most XO's on the market are already older than ten years and won't have to change). Cognacs may be single vintage bottlings (all eau de vie comes from a single year) and labeled on the bottle. They may not say an average or minimum age on the bottle (example: "ten years old") as they can with scotch whisky.

Older blends are not just further aged versions of younger blends- they are usually separate products. For example, a brand may compose their VS product primarily of eau de vie from the Fine Bois, while for their XO products most will come from Grande Champagne.

Cognac production is rather interesting, in that most cognac houses are only blending and aging houses. They do not traditionally own their own vineyards or their own distilleries, and they don't even need to own the aging facilities. (In reality the brands I visited owned some vineyards and distilleries but nothing close to the amount for their full production. It seems most all houses age most of their own eau de vie rather than buy it already aged.)

The "big four" cognac houses that make up around 75-80% of the world market are Hennessy, Martell, Courvoisier, and Remy Martin. There are many smaller houses, of course, and some of these own vineyards and distill, age, and blend on-site.

In future blog posts, I'll talk about some brand specifics.

September 21, 2009