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Cognac & Wine club

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Cognac

named after the town of Cognac in France, is a famous variety of brandy. It is produced in thewine-growing region surrounding the town from which it takes its name, in the French Departements of Charente and Charente-Maritime.

As an Appellation d'origine contrôlée, in order to bear the name Cognac, the production methods for the distilled brandy must meet specified legal requirements. It must be made from certain grapes (see below); of these, Ugni Blanc, known locally as Saint-Emilion, is the most widely-used variety today.[citation needed] It must be distilled twice in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in French oak barrels from Limousin or Tronçais. Most cognacs are aged considerably longer than the minimum legal requirement, because cognac matures in the same way as whiskies and wine when aged in a barrel.

The region authorised to produce cognac is divided into six zones, including five crus broadly covering the department of Charente-Maritime, a large part of the department of Charente and a few areas in Deux-Sèvres and the Dordogne. The six zones are: Grande Champagne,Petite Champagne, Borderies, Fins Bois, Bon Bois and finally Bois Ordinaire. A blend of Grande and Petite Champagne Cognacs, with at least half coming from Grande Champagne, is known as Fine Champagne. Cognac is made from eaux-de-vie (literally "waters of life") produced by doubly distilling the white wines produced in any of the growth areas. This drink was first created to use up the grape waste of wine making, and was considered a drink for the poor. The wine is a very dry, acidic, thin wine, "virtually undrinkable",[but excellent for distillation and aging. After the grapes are pressed, the juice is left to ferment for two or three weeks, with the region's native, wild yeasts converting the sugar into alcohol; neither sugar nor sulfur may be added.[5] At this point, the resulting wine is about 7 to 8% alcohol.

Distillation takes place in traditionally shaped Charentais copper stills, also known as an alembic, the design and dimensions of which are also legally controlled. Two distillations must be carried out; the resulting eau-de-vie is a colourless spirit of about 70% alcohol.

Once distillation is complete, it must be aged in oak for at least two years before it can be sold to the public. As the cognac interacts with the oak barrel and the air, it evaporates at the rate of about three percent each year, slowly losing both alcohol and water[2] Because the alcohol dissipates faster than the water, cognac reaches the target 40% alcohol by volume in about four or five decades, though lesser grades can be produced much sooner by diluting the cognac with water, which also makes its flavor less concentrated.[2] Since oak barrels stop contributing to flavor after four or five decades, cognac is then transferred to large glass carboys called bonbonnes, then stored for future blending.

The age of the cognac is calculated as that of the youngest eau-de-vie used in the blend. The blend is usually of different ages and (in the case of the larger and more commercial producers) from different local areas. This blending, or marriage, of different eaux-de-vie is important to obtain a complexity of flavours absent from an eau-de-vie from a single distillery or vineyard. Each cognac house has a master taster (maître de chai), who is responsible for creating this delicate blend of spirits, so that the cognac produced by a company today will taste almost exactly the same as a cognac produced by that same company 50 years ago, or in 50 years' time.[citation needed] In this respect it is similar to the process of blendingwhisky or non-vintage Champagne to achieve a consistent brand flavor. A very small number of producers, such as Guillon Painturaud and Moyet, do not blend their final product from different ages of eaux-de-vie to produce a 'purer' flavour (a practice roughly equivalent to the production of a single-cask Scotch whisky).  Hundreds of vineyards in the Cognac AOC region sell their own cognac. These are likewise blended from the eaux-de-vie of different years, but they are single-vineyard cognacs, varying slightly from year to year and according to the taste of the producer, hence lacking some of the predictability of the better-known commercial products. Depending on their success in marketing, small producers may sell a larger or smaller proportion of their product to individual buyers, wine dealers, bars and restaurants, the remainder being acquired by larger cognac houses for blending. The success of artisanal cognacs has encouraged some larger industrial-scale producers to produce single-vineyard cognacs.

The official quality grades of cognac are, according to the BNIC (Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac):

• VS Very Special, or ✯✯✯ (three stars) where the youngest brandy is stored at least two years in cask
• VSOP Very Special (less commonly, but officially according to the BNIC, 'Superior') Old Pale, where the youngest brandy is stored at least four years in a cask, but the average wood age is much older
• XO Extra Old, where the youngest brandy is stored at least six, but average upwards of 20 years. On April 1, 2016, the minimum storage age of the youngest brandy used in an XO blend will be set to ten years

In addition the following can be mentioned:

• Napoleon Although the BNIC states this grade is equal to XO in terms of minimum age, it is generally marketed in-between VSOP and XO in the product range offered by the producers
• Extra A minimum of 6 years of age, this grade is usually older than a Napoleon or an XO
• Vieux Is another grade between the official grades of VSOP and XO
• Vieille Réserve Is, like the Hors d´Âge, a grade beyond XO
• Hors d'âge The BNIC states that also this grade is equal to XO, but in practice the term is used by producers to market a high quality product beyond the official age scale. Hence the name "Hors d'âge" (beyond age)

While there are close to 200 cognac producers,[1] a large percentage of cognac—90% according to one 2008 estimate[8]—is produced by only four companies: Courvoisier, Hennessy, Martell, and Rémy Martin.

from: wikipedia