The history of Cognac – The Defining Moments

When we talk about cognac, little thought is given to what we are talking about, or indeed what the definitions of cognacs really are. The battle against imitation cognacs was largely settled by legislation in 1905 and reinforced in 1929 by the special Acquit Jaune d’Or, the gold coloured certificate of origin that accompanies every load of cognac on the highway.

The Martell/Hennessey pact created both stability and unrest amongst the producers who were offered custom to maintain their business, but at the same time restricted in what they made and supplied. During the war a well known grower Pierre Verneuil and Maurice Hennessey followed the example of some of the merchants and a few growers to form what emerged after the war as Cognacs governing body, the Bureau National Interprofessionel du Cognac.

The BNIC acquired a great deal of de facto independence from the government in the formulation and supervision of the rules that govern cognac, most of which had been laid down before the war. They also took over the role previously performed by Martell and Hennessey, of deciding the price of new brandies from the various crus. The region had been divided into crus in the 1930’s as a consequence of the system of Appellation d’Origine Contrôllée envisaged in the original statute protecting regional names.