Small Cognac Grower opts for Single Vintage

The ‘big four’ houses account for 83% of total cognac sales so for smaller producers to be noticed they have to be different.  Attempting to address this is Olivier Blanc, co-founder of small organic producer Leopold Gourmel.  He has chosen to only produce single vintage Cognac using grapes from the chalky soils of the Grande Champagne cru.  These grapes impart minerality into the final spirit and rather than sticking to a rigid distillation process, he adapts his approach to account for the particular conditions of each vintage.  The resulting, individual cognacs will be of much greater quality than the mass produced versions and be in keeping with our policy here at Brandyclassics of only stocking pure, single estate cognac with age statements, such as Hermitage.