Category: cognac

Between the Heart and the Tails, the ‘Seconds’

In pot-still distillation we always talk about the cuts: the heads and tails that are discarded (or recycled), and the hearts cut that become the spirit that ends up in the bottle.

But some distillers make another cut between the heart and the tails called the seconds. (Say it with a french pronunciation seh-kuhnndz rather than like seconds on a clock.)

At Privateer Rum in Massachusetts, they make a special rum called The Queen's Share that is a redistillation of just seconds. We'll get to that in a second.

Seconds in Cognac

The first place I heard the term seconds was in Cognac, and frankly I don't know much about it. Luckily for us, Privateer Rum's head distiller Maggie Campbell was trained by Hubert Germain-Robin, a frenchman who has distilled fantastic cognac-style brandies in California since 1984. Campbell was able to fill me in on how this cut of the spirit is used in some cognacs.

To review the process: Cognac is distilled twice in pot stills. The first distillation is the wine distillation. The second one is called the brouillis or low-wines distillation. In cognac, since they only distill for a small part of the year after the grape harvest/fermentation period, they do not make a separate product out of the seconds, but they do often recycle them back into a their next batch of wine bound for distillation, or in the next batch's second distillation.

Note that in single-malt scotch whisky and in some other spirits production they also put the heads/tails back into the first or second distillation, just to get all of the usable alcohol out of it. So this isn't unique to cognac or the seconds. But different brands/categories decide where they "re-pitch" (put into the next distillation batch) the heads, tails, and sometimes seconds. These may be in different places.

Campbell says of seconds in cognac:

In Cognac each distiller has their recipe as to where they re-pitch each one and claim how it changes the flavor of the following distillates.

Some producers redistill the heads and tails and put them into the wine, and others put them into the low wines (brouillis).

They say if it goes into the wine the ABV is significantly raised on the first installation causing the rest of the distillations to be higher in alcohol. Apparently when it goes in the wine there's less concentration of congeners and lighter flavor brandy is made. This is what Martel does.

If the heads and tails go into the brouillis (second distillation) then it makes it richer and deeper. This is what Hennessey does.

Note that doesn't account for the seconds and where they go. Next time I'm in cognac I'm going to research this further.

Seconds in Rum and the Queen's Share

So at Privateer Rum, they do not re-pitch the heads and tails at all so that they don't affect the heart of the distillation or build up.

But the seconds are collected during each distillation and saved. From the explainer sheet:

As the hearts run off the still they become more powerful & flavorful approaching the tails cut. Even once these tails have overpowered the hearts and we’ve made our cut, some of these rich hearts are still intertwined with the bitter tails. At this stage we collect… the ‘seconds’.

These seconds (collected over many runs) are redistilled (a third distillation); the tails of this distillation are discarded; and this special batch of rum is then aged separately.

This is what made up the release of the first single barrel of Privateer's Queen's Share. It was aged 3 years and bottled.

If you've read this far, I've got bad news for you: There wasn't very much of it and it's probably long-since sold out.

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February 4, 2016
A Daylong Visit to Cognac Hine

I visited a bunch of cognac houses in the fall of 2014, and spent nearly a whole day with Cognac Hine at their vineyards, winery, distillery, and blending house.

I didn't realize that there are 250 or so cognac houses, so my visit to less than 20 of them is small potatoes. The big potatoes belong to Hennessy, which makes 42% of all cognac. They, plus the other 3 of the Big Four houses, create 80% of cognac sold. Hine does about 1 percent of Hennessy's volume.

The Vineyards

Hine owns 70 hectares under vine in Grande Champagne but don't grow all of their own grapes – they produce about 25% of their own needs.

Cellarmaster Eric Forget says that in 2014 (I was there just before harvest) they expected to harvest grapes that would make 9.5% alcohol at about 3.4 pH. Just about all harvesting is mechanical in Cognac. Hine rents the picking machines and grape presses to make their portion of wine.

Forget says that vines in the region are typically sprayed to prevent mildew, and it is difficult to make organic wine in the region because of the humid weather. Near to harvest time, they can't spray anymore as that could get into the wine.

When the grape juice arrives at the winery, they start fermentation with dry yeast in stainless steel tanks at 17 degrees Celsius. They temperature control fermentation and storage because for cognac you can't add sulfur or anything else as a preservative while the wine waits to be distilled.

Distilling For Hine

The distillery we visited isn't owned by the brand, but they're independent distillers who make almost all of Hine's brandy. (Hine is only 10% of the distillery's business on the other hand.)

The wine that comes into the distillery is distilled up to 30% ABV after the first distillation. They do make a heads and tails cut after the first as well as the second distillation. The second distillation brings the spirit up to 70-72% ABV. Each distillation takes about 12 hours.

It takes approximately 10 liters of wine to produce 1 liter of spirit.

When a brand like Hine has wine distilled for them, they are able to specify certain distillation parameters. These may include whether or not to distill on the lees, that the heads cuts are 30 liters or whatever, how long the distillation time should be, the temperature of distillation, etc.

For Hine, they distill the wine on the lees, which are the bits of yeast and other bits left floating in the liquid after fermentation. Hine also specifies a smaller cut (meaning more heads in the spirit) but generally tells the distiller to do what they think is best.

I asked the distiller why a premium brand would direct the distillation of a smaller cut, which includes what we think of as more undesirable elements of the heads/tails into the spirit. He said that larger brands do larger cuts because its a 'safer' cut, but also probably results in less interesting brandy.

Aging Cognac at Hine

Forget says, "The philosophy of Hine is to use as little wood as possible," which means they're avoid woody flavors and wood influence. The use fine grain oak, and have their barrels toasted to a low level char.

They say that cognac won't improve in barrel after 50-60 years or so, and they'd transfer it to glass demijohns at that point.

Hine is a cognac that produces a lot of "Early Landed" cognacs, which are not aged in France but in England. By the way, I learned that the amazing grocery/liquor store in Sacramento, Corti Brothers, has a small specialty selection of early landed cognacs.

They also released a unique single-vintage, single-vineyard cognac called Domaines HINE Bonneuil 2005.

Anyway, this visit was my last cognac house for my 2014 trip, and a beautiful way to end it.

February 25, 2015
The Complicated Aging Process for Cognac, as Seen at Cognac Hardy
In 2014 I visited several cognac houses, and had the pleasure to spend several hours with Benedicte Hardy of Cognac Hardy in their aging and blending facilities.

We got really nerdy with specifics on aging cognac. But first, some background.

Hardy specializes in luxury cognacs, and in general is blended in an "approachable" and "feminine" style. It's a very large operation, with 20,000 barrels aging at their warehouses valued at more than 50 million dollars worth of booze.

It was Benedicte's father who made the company famous in recent years putting the emphasis on luxury. She herself has a law degree and is in charge of the US market, so there may be opportunities to meet with her at events in the States (and I'd highly recommend doing so if the occasion arises- she's a character).

A Cognac Maker, Not A Distiller

Hardy is not a cognac house that grows, ferments, and distills grapes, but they do work with a co-op of 200 growers.

The blender, Michael, buys spirit from Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Fin Bois, and Bon Bois. But he doesn't just purchase already-distilled wine, he goes to the distillery/wineries to taste before/after and helps direct the distillation if need be. He said that for example, if a wine is super aromatic he might instruct the distillery to distill on the lees, which will mark the spirit for longer aging.

Regardless, he tastes the new-make spirit after purchase and makes a determination on which product they're destined for – VSOP, XO, etc. He says that 90% of the time the initial determination is correct and they won't have to redirect it off its appointed path later on.

Aging Cognac Versus Other Spirits

Many of the world's spirits, including nearly all scotch whisky, rum, and tequila, age in ex-bourbon casks. The wood has had its influence on the bourbon and vice-versa. So the next time that barrel is used to age rum or whatever, it will not have the same amount of influence on the color and flavor of the next spirit.

In cognac and armagnac, on the other hand, they do not use ex-bourbon casks but new and used French oak barrels. The wood gives a lot of influence when it is first used, and in the case of French oak it brings in lots of tannins along with flavor.

So while bourbon ages only in new barrels for its entire life, cognac is usually aged only for a small amount of time in new barrels then it is transferred into older barrels for the rest of its life so that the wood doesn't take over. (One thing to note that in Cognac, a 'new' barrel means that it has been used for three years or less; it's doesn't necessarily mean brand new.)

In scotch whisky and rum and tequila, since they're using used barrels from the get-go, they don't have to worry so much about the over-oaking so they don't need to move the liquids around unless they feel like it.

Aging at Hardy

So that was a lot of lead-up. Here is how the VSOP is aged at Cognac Hardy.
1. The brandy is purchased at 70% ABV
2. It is reduced with water down to 55% and put in Small (220 liter), New barrels. (Note that a typical cognac barrels is 350 liters)
3. The barrels are divided up – some are put into dry cellars and others are put into humid cellars. The ratio is a house secret.
4. At 18 months the barrels are moved into Dry cellars
5. At 24 months, the cognac is reduced to 47% ABV and placed in Humid Cellars
6. After 5 years, the cognac is reduced to 43% ABV and placed back into Small barrels
7. After 8 years, the cognac is blended and reduced to 40%
8. After another 6 months marrying, it is bottled.
Notes About That:
- At each barrel transfer stage, the cognac is taken out from individual barrels and put into a big vat before dilution, then redistributed to the next barrels. No wonder cognac is so pricey.
- Humid cellars at Hardy have about a 3% annual angels' share, while dry ones have 6%.
- For longer-aged XO cognac, they put it into barrels that have been toasted for longer so that these will continue to contribute their toasted effects to it
- XO has the same reduction with water scheme as the VSOP, but the toasting is different. (Additionally it is made from brandy that was more distilled on the lees than the younger brandies.)
- Chill filtration before bottling is at -7 degrees Celsius for 7 days before running it through the filter
The $64,000 Tasting

We were allowed to taste the highest of the high end Hardy cognacs bottled in Lalique decanters, which retail for $16,000 per bottle. They all come from the same stock of cognacs distilled in the 1920s-1940s, but are blended to bring out different aspects of each.

They are named for each of the four seasons, though currently only the spring (Le Printemps) is on the market. Summer launches in November 2015, and Fall and Winter will follow every 2 years from that.

It's weird and rather awesome to be able to taste a cognac that won't hit the market until 2019.
February 24, 2015
Cognac Deau Visit
While in France last year, I had time for a quick unscheduled visit to the house of Deau Cognac.

Deau is located about 40 minutes from the town of Cognac, between the Fin Bois and Petite Champagne. They grow about 30 hectares of grapes, and buy wine from other growers (Fin Bois, Grande Champagne, and Petite Champagne) that they distill on-site.

The distillery itself is quite large, with 12 stills.

I met Véronique Bru Legaret, who along with her son heads up the company. They actually produce three cognac brands: Deau, Moisans, and Roland Bru (named for Véronique's father, who brought the company into the current era).

Previously they sold all their cognac to large brands (I think they no longer do), but now seem to be emphasizing their luxury products. New fancy, sail-shaped bottles have just hit the USA market recently further emphasizing their luxury positioning.

I quickly tasted through most of the Deau line, and here are my nonsensical-as-usual notes:
- VS: Tight but good
- VSOP: Smells more mature than the VSOP bottling would suggest; sweet cream.
- Napoleaon: 7-8 years old. Sweet yellow raisins.
- XO: Around 15 years old. Christmas spices including buttery cinnamon with a spicy/minty finish.
- Black: Around 10 years old. Sweet and thin, meant for mixing.
- Louis Memory: Supple, creamy, like a more mature version of the XO
- L.V.O.: Stands for the French translation of "Life in Gold." Made from 1915, 1930, 1950 Grande Champagne cognacs. Banana, raisins, subtle and sandy.
A superquick but lovely visit!
February 18, 2015
A Visit to Merlet Cognac and Liqueurs in France
The Merlet family has been distilling in France for 5 generations, but have only launched their own brand of cognac in recent years. They have a really interesting history that I learned on a visit to their chateau, vineyards, and distillery in 2014.

A Brief History of the Cognac Market
- Many people from different countries around the world (occupying as well as liberating armies) discovered cognac in World War II. The demand for cognac was very high globally after the war.
- In the 1960s based on the brandy's success, the region planted a lot of vines.
- In the 1970s there was a big glut in the market, resulting in some economic problems for producers who over-planted and over-extended themselves.
- Today those vines planted all those years ago are nearing the end of their lifespan and need to be replanted or maintained.
The Merlet family made wine and distilled cognac for many brands, including Hennessy until 2000. In the 1970s due to the market glut, the Merlet family diversified away from just making cognac into making liqueurs. Today the company's business model reflects both history and that same ingenuity.

Merlet Today
- Produces liqueurs including the Creme de Cassis for which they are particularly well-known
- Makes their own brand of cognac, and produce an unaged brandy for the European market
- Distill brandy for sale to cognac houses
- Produce Hypnotiq liqueur
- Run the Leblon cachaca distillery in Brazil
Visiting Merlet – The Home and Vineyards

I visited the family home, vineyards, wine production facility, distillery, and aging facility, which are scattered about the area of Saint Sauvant, a little village near Cognac with a 12th century church as its central feature.

The family home is Luc Merlet(my host for the day)'s father's house. It looks out over vineyards (they own 40 hectares) and was the former location of the distillery.

The house was also once the home of Baron Otard, who was a real person as well as the name of a Bacardi-owned cognac brand. That brand home is now located in a tourist attraction/castle/aging warehouse in the heart of the city of Cognac.

I visited the vineyards in the fall, about 10 days before they'd begin harvesting the ugni blanc grapes for distillation. (Ugni blanc is the same grape as Italy's Trebbiano.) These vineyards are in the Borderies delimited region, while the current distillery is in the Fin Bois.

Making Wine for Cognac

We then drove to the winery, where they receive the grapes, crush, and ferment them. Grapes are harvested over the course of just 3 weeks and made into wine, then the wine rests until they have a chance to distill it, which can be months away (by March 31 all distilling for cognac must be completed). The winery was a former co-op winery that they purchased.

Ideal ugni blanc grapes for cognac production are low in sugar/alcohol potential, because distillation will concentrate all the flavors in the grape. The lower the potential alcohol the more times you need to concentrate it to reach the final proof, and thus the more you'll concentrate the flavors getting there. (For example, a 10% ABV wine would be concentrated 4 times to reach 40%, while a 5% wine would be concentrated by 8 times.)

Also, for cognac you cannot add sulfates to the wine to preserve it (as those would be horrible after distillation), so they want high-acid grapes.

Distilling and Tasting

At the distillery, they have 9 stills, including a gargantuan 100 hectoliter still. This huge one can only be used for the first distillation; smaller ones will be used for the second.

Merlet's Brothers' Blend cognac (named for Luc and his brother) is a VSOP aged between 4-12 years and created for mixing in cocktails.

They recently released the first of the Seleccion Saint Sauvant cognac, which is a higher-end bottling.

The flagship of the liqueur line is their Creme de Cassis. Legally creme de cassis must have a minimum of 400 g/l sugar added, but theirs has 500-550 g/l according to Luc Merlet. He says the local blackcurrants (which are the only of the fruits for liqueurs that they grow themselves) require more sugar.

Luc Merlet mentioned a traditional cocktail that is a mix of Cassis and Suze, sometimes with soda added. It has a name that means "panty bottom."

Merlet has also released a couple of liqueurs branded as C2, for Cognac and Cassis and Cognac and Citron. These are meant to be premade aperitifs meant for mixing with ice and soda water.

That was a lot of information gleaned from such a short visit! Thanks for Luc Merlet for hosting.
February 17, 2015
Camper English Awarded International Cognac Writer of the Year 2014

Last week I had the honor of being awarded the International Cognac Writer of the Year for 2014. The annual award is granted by the Bureau national interprofessionnel du Cognac, the BNIC. They are the industry promotion group for cognac.

Previous winners of the award include David Wondrich and Salvatore Calabrese, so I'm in excellent company.

I was given the award at the annual La Part des Anges charity auction held in Cognac, which this year raised over 237,600 euros for the Children in Crisis charity. The charity's patron Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, was there to host the event. (I sat at the next table over with her assistants.)

My friends Eric Fossard and Thierry Daniel were awarded the Cognac Personalities of the Year award for their running of the Boutique Bar Show in Paris.

In addition to the certificate to hang on the wall of my office, they gave me an engraved bottle to tempt me from storage.

Related articles

D'USSE Cognac Introduces an XO Blend

100 Classic Cocktails You May Have Heard Of Made with Satisfactory Results

How Cognac D'USSE is Made

September 26, 2014
Why Add Sugar to Rum When it’s Made from Sugar in the First Place?
As mentioned in yesterday's post, rum is distilled from any sugar cane derivative like fermented fresh cane juice or molasses. But some producers add sugar to their finished rum after distillation.

Adding sugar to any spirit can soften it and hide some flaws, but if you look at the (allegedly) sweetened rums in this post on RefinedVices.com, you'll notice two general patterns among the rum bottlings that allegedly have sugar added:
1. They come from big companies that shouldn't need to add sugar to cover a bad distillate. They know how to distill.
2. They're aged rums, rather than white rums.
Well it turns out that adding sugar to spirits also gives them the guise of age.

Ian Burrell, global rum expert and founder of Rum Experience, commented on the original Facebook post of the sugar values with some really interesting information. He wrote:

I recently did a private tasting for 50 consumers with two rums both finished in sherry casks. One was notably sweeter than the other. When I asked the guests to let me know which they felt was the oldest, 80% said the sweeter one. When I asked which they prefer 60% said the sweeter one.

I then gave them a 3rd rum, which they were unaware was actually Rum no.1 (the dryer rum) with a touch of sugar added to it. All agreed that this was the best rum of the three.

I then pointed out that Rum number 3 (which was in fact the OLDEST RUM) was the Rum no 1 with sugar added, and that they had perceived the added sweetness as extra aging and smoothness.

These rums with high levels of sugar added to them are what I call "Dessert Rums" but they still and will always have a place on our bars, restaurant and spirit cabinet because consumers will buy rums (& other spirits) according to how they taste and not how they are made. But WE must educate them, when feasible, that part of the taste that they are appreciating is the added sugar, wine, vermouth, spice, etc.

What was really interesting about my exercise with the 50 tasters was the ones that preferred the dryer rum also liked whisky. While the “sweeter loving” rum drinkers like cognac.

That last dig on cognac drinkers? It's because cognac also has a dirty secret: much cognac has sugar added to it too.
January 8, 2014
How Cognac D’USSE is Made

While I was in Cognac with Grey Goose, I made a quick trip to the Chateau de Cognac where they make cognac Baron Otard in addition to the new product for the US market, D'USSE.

I previously visited this chateau to learn about Baron Otard, which was then just called Otard. Baron Otard is the sixth largest cognac brand.

D'USSE is also made here, so I wanted to learn what makes it different. I met with Philippe Jouhaud, Sales and Marketing Director of Chateau de Cognac.

Production

Jouhaud described the ways that the cognacs here are different from other brands. Firstly, they use grapes grown in four of the legal regions: Grande Champagne, Petit Chamagne, Fins Bois, and Borderies regions.

They distill the brandy on the lees, which means the grape skins are put into the still along with the grape juice.

They also redistill the segund (sp) with the result of the first distillation. Or, in English: Cognac is distilled twice. In distillation, you take out the heads and tails, but keep the heart. The segund is the spirit that's between the heart and the tails. Distillers have the option of recycling this segund by throwing it back with the wine for the first distillation, or as they do here, put it with the spirit from the first distillation. Thus, the segunds are only redistilled once rather than twice.

They insist their brandies are distilled before the end of January, though legally eau de vie for cognac can be distilled until the end of March. This ensures the grapes are fresh.

Aging

They also use casks made from different regions – Limousin, Trancais, and other regions. Limousin oak is loose grained, and thus allows for more extraction/interaction with the wood and spirit. The other woods are tighter grain.

In aging, they put the newly made spirit into Limousin oak barrels for 4-6 months then later transfer it to older barrels so it won't extract so much tannins. Limousin oak barrels are typically used for younger cognacs so it gets more wood influence in a shorter amount of time.

They give their barrels a medium toast.

The chateau is unique in Cognac. Not only are barrels of brandy aging in what is essentially a castle, it is a mere 50 meters from the Charante river. This makes for cellars that are the most humid in Cognac, along with some dry cellars as well. The humidity of the aging cellars make a big difference in the flavor profile of cognac.

Otard vs. D'USSE

The goal with D'USSE was to make a boldly flavored cognac that would stand out in mixed drinks. To do that, the blenders used cognacs from certain cellars.

Otard and D'USSE are made from the same barrel stock, just with different blends.

In humid cellars the barrels lose alcohol faster, and this creates cognac that Jouhaud describes as round and smooth. In dry cellars, the alcohol evaporates at a slower rate and the cognac tastes woodier, spicier, drier, and with more of a bite.

Thus, to give D'USSE its desired flavor, they used a greater proportion of cognac from dry cellars.

October 5, 2012
Filtration in Spirits: A Primer

For CLASS Magazine online at DiffordsGuide.com, I wrote an article about filtration in spirits. This was based on the research I did for my talk on the subject at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic earlier this year.

Don't Forget the Filtration Factor
By Camper English

Nearly every spirit undergoes some sort of filtration, yet we rarely acknowledge it as part of production. But filtration makes vodka what it is today, practically defines Tennessee whiskey, is the standard in making white rum, and is changing the look of tequila. Filtration is important.

Generally speaking, filtration refers to the mechanical process of passing a liquid or gas through a medium that keeps out solids of a certain size. But in spirits, we include carbon filtration (sometimes called carbon treatment) as filtration too. Carbon filtration works differently: by absorption, the adhesion of particles to a surface, like flypaper.

I researched filtration in spirits for a talk at this year's Manhattan Cocktail Classic. While I can't claim category-wide or hands-on expertise in this matter, I spoke with several industry sources who know their stuff. Consider this an introduction to the subject.

The article covers filtration in vodka, rum, tequila, whisk(e)y, and cognac. I hope you'll find it interesting. Get the full story here.

Update: The story came off the site, so here it is in its entirety:

Filtration in Spirits

Camper English

Nearly every spirit undergoes some sort of filtration, yet we rarely acknowledge it as part of production. But filtration makes vodka what it is today, practically defines Tennessee whiskey, is the standard in making white rum, and is changing the look of tequila. Filtration is important.

Generally speaking, filtration refers to the mechanical process of passing a liquid or gas through a medium that keeps out solids of a certain size. (Think of a screen door.) But in spirits, we include carbon filtration (sometimes called carbon treatment) as filtration too. Carbon filtration works differently: By adsorption, the adhesion of particles to a surface. (Think of flypaper.)

I researched filtration in spirits for a talk at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic in May 2012. While I can’t claim category-wide or hands-on expertise in this matter, I spoke with several industry sources who know their stuff. Consider this an introduction to the subject.

Vodka, Charcoal, Tequila, and Rum

Early vodka was surely very different from the perfectly clear, nearly-neutral spirit we know today. True, distillation was cruder, performed in pot stills rather than in today’s hyper-efficient columns, but filtration helped rid vodka of lots of nastiness. Much early vodka filtration seems to resemble “fining” in wine and beer – a fining agent speeds up precipitation of impurities in the liquid. Fining agents have included egg whites, milk, gelatin, fish bladders, something called “blood powder.” Vodka has also been filtered through sand and other soils (this process is still used in water treatment), felt, and other materials.

But activated carbon (charcoal) seems to have the largest impact on vodka and other spirits, or at least it is the most commonly used filtration method. In vintage vodka, charcoal derived from trees was used to clean up the liquid, but today charcoal for filtration may come from wood, nut shells (coconut especially), and even bones. (Fun fact: some white table sugar is clarified using bone charcoal, rendering it non-vegetarian.)

Vodkas today advertise a range of other material to complement the carbon. These include birch charcoal, quartz sand, and algae (Ladoga), Herkimer Diamonds (Crystal Head), freeze filtration, Z-carbon filter, and silver (Stoli Elit), Platinum (Platinka), Gold (Lithuanian), Lava Rock (Hawaiian, Reyka), and marble (Akvinta). Though many of these methods sound like pure marketing, in fact some of these precious materials like platinum and silver do improve filtration efficiency. (For very detailed information on some vodka filtration technologies, this site https://www.vodka-tf.com/ is quite a read.)

Charcoal filtering is also commonly used in tequila. According to one tequila producer, this is because the law for tequila production (the NOM) specifies amounts of impurities like esters and furfural that may be present in tequila, and these numbers are difficult to consistency hit with distillation alone. Thus, charcoal filtration cleans up the impurities in tequila a little bit – but also removes some flavor with it.

Charcoal filtration can remove color as well as flavor and impurities. Many ‘white’ rums are aged a year or more in ex-bourbon barrels, and then filtered for clarity. Charcoal filtration (and other new-at-the-time technologies such as aging and column distillation) helped make Bacardi the popular and later global brand of rum that it is today. This lighter, clear style of rum born, in Cuba, is often called the ‘international style’ that won out in popularity over regional production methods.

All charcoal isn’t created the same, however. Should you take a dark rum and run it through a water filter repeatedly, you may not lose any color. (I tried.) Some parameters that distillers investigate in choosing the right carbon filtration material include the base material (bone, nut charcoal, wood, etc), the “iodine number” and the “molasses number,” the latter a measurement of decolorization. Activated carbon meant for cleaning up water may not be of any use in stripping color from liquids.

Decolorization has allowed for a new trend in tequila: aged tequila filtered to clarity. Probably the first tequila to do so was Maestro Dobel, a blend of reposado, anejo, and extra-anejo tequila filtered to near-clarity. In recent months, new brands have followed suit, including Casa Dragones (blanco and anejo mixed together and clarified), Milagro Unico (blanco with ‘aged reserves’), and Don Julio 70^th Anniversary Anejo Claro (clarified anejo). In the opposite direction, the first tequila that I’ve seen labeled as ‘unfiltered,’ a special cask-strength bottling of Ocho, has also just hit the market.

Whisky and Cognac

In both scotch and in bourbon, there is an increasing trend toward unfiltered whiskey, while chill filtration is still very much the norm. Chill filtration prevents cloudiness in spirits (particularly at low temperatures) and precipitation of particulates in the bottle. It is purely an aesthetic choice, not meant to affect the flavor of the spirit. However, many experts argue that it does alter (flatten) the flavor to some extent. (For a very nerdy analysis of chill filtration, we refer you to this information from Bruichladdich https://www.bruichladdich.com/library/bruichladdichs-guide-to-chill-filtration.)

As far as I have been able to learn, in chill filtration activated carbon is not used. The spirit is chilled to a certain degree, and then a cellulose or other paper filter is used to remove the esters and fatty acids that are less soluble at low temperatures. Whiskies bottled at higher proofs tend not to cloud, so many cask-strength whiskies and many (if not most) whiskies bottled at 46 percent alcohol or higher are non-chill filtered. Outside the bottle, however, when ice or water is added and they dilute, they may get cloudy.

Tennessee whiskey has its own style of filtration. After the spirit is distilled but before it goes into the barrel for aging, the whiskey is dripped through or soaked in tubs with about ten feet of charcoal made from sugar maple trees. Contrary to popular opinion, this is in no way required by law, but both Jack Daniel’s and George Dickel employ this technique. Gentlemen Jack is unusual in that it undergoes charcoal filtration a second time before bottling.

One cognac distiller revealed that filtration in cognac is also standard: cognac is run through paper filters of a specific (depending on the product) pore size to filter out undesired molecules. While most cognac is not chill-filtered, one producer said that when bottles are destined for cold-weather countries (cognac is popular in Scandinavia), it is often chill-filtered to prevent cloudiness in the bottle. It might be interesting to taste chill and non-chill filtered versions of the same cognac. The opportunity is rarely, if ever, afforded in scotch.

So, some form of filtration is used in about every type of spirit, whether that’s to change the color, clean up undesired impurities or clean out off flavors, to prevent cloudiness, or just to keep out chunks of stuff from floating in your bottle. As with the water used in fermentation, the type of still, and the location/condition of aging barrels, filtration is an important part of the process of making spirits and shouldn’t be so often overlooked.

August 14, 2012
Cognac Cocktails in the Los Angeles Times Magazine

My first story for the LA Times Magazine is now online. It is in the Sunday, December 7, 2010 print edition.

(Photo by Bartholomew Cooke)

The story is a brief airing of a pet peeve: Why are there so few cognac cocktails being served when we're supposedly in the midst of a classic cocktail renaissance?

The article also includes four recipes from Damian Windsor of the Roger Room.

Read and enjoy!

November 7, 2010