The Cognac Process – Part 1.1 Five Hundred years of History

Although the history of cognac probably goes back 500 years it has been universally recognised as the finest of all the hundreds of spirits distilled from grapes. For the sheer depth and intensity, fruitiness, subtlety of bouquet, warmth and complexity of flavour and length of time for which the flavour lingers on the palate, cognac remains incomparable.

The ability to extract so much of the essential flavour from the grape is no accident. It involves possessing the right soil and climate, choosing the right grape varieties, using the appropriate distillation process and then enhancing the inherent quality through long storage in the right kind and size of wooden cask in damp and dark cellars, often for decades. Yet even this complicated formula would not have sufficed if the Cognaçais (ironically a culturally introverted breed, their qualities epitomized by their nickname cagouillards, snails) had not been prepared to exploit their historic access to markets that appreciate the fine and by definition, expensive spirit they produce.