Category: The Cognac Process

One of the biggest changes in cognac production in the 19^th century was the change of grape from the Folle, or Folle Blanche as we know it today, to the Ugni Blanc after the Phylloxera outbreak in 1872. The Cognaçais were, in effect, forced to try and understand their viniculture on a more sophisticated level. By controlling crop levels, so as to reduce stress on the new roots, controlling disease and the timing of harvesting the grapes, the quality of the wine improved and therefore the cognac.

The clearer thinking on viniculture also rubbed off on the viticulture and the ageing process. The introduction of wine warmers, different still shapes and sizes, time controls on the grapes before pressing to avoid bacteria and the use of lees to add flavour were all part of the rapid learning which added more attractive qualities to the spirit. As skill and knowledge of the distillation process improved, so too did understanding of the ageing process.  Cellar masters began learning about the effect of the barrels on the quality of the cognac.  Barrels could be made from different oaks, in various sizes and perhaps most importantly, if stored in damp cellars spirit migration could be controlled.

Replanting after the Phylloxera outbreak did not restore prosperity.  After the First World War came Prohibition in the United States and crippling state duties in Britain as well as State monopolies in Canada and Norway.  Things became so bad that in 1922 Hennessy and Martell signed a pact to work together, effectively carving up the world markets between them.

Ironically, it was the German occupation of 1940-45 which provoked the springboard for post war cooperation and prosperity.  Cognac was occupied during the war but the commander was a sympathetic figure named Herr Klaebisch.  He had been in school in Cognac before the war and his family had controlled the well-known firm of Merkow.  Klaebisch tried to minimise the disturbance to the Cognaçais, although they had to supply the Germans with enormous quantities of brandy and Klaebisch’s boss, Rudolf Hess, was known to be particularly fond of good cognac. But the Cognaçais cheated by shipping a lot of spirits made from root vegetables, not dissimilar to the Irish Poteen.  This preserved their valuable stocks of real and very old cognacs which is why we are still able to obtain many today.

In the decades after the fall of Napoleon, newly rich merchants like Messrs Otard and Dupuy built large houses in the woods around the town and with the growth of other firms, such as Martell and Hennessy, the town expanded beyond its walls. It was these big houses who set the price at which the growers would sell their brandies to the merchants who formed hereditary relationships with the growers. They were bound not by contracts but by the habit of regular trading between them in an agreed form and style of cognac. In 1857 the merchant’s position was strengthened by a new law which allowed them to register their trademarks and thus assert their own individuality. Previously most cognacs, especially those sold in Britain, had been sold under the names of the merchants who had imported them in cask, rather as buyers’ own brands are today.

The reduction of customs duties in 1861-62 heralded a brief period of glory when sales tripled in 15 years to nearly 65 million bottles annually. Britain was the biggest market but everywhere in the world, from Latin America to Tsarist Russia, cognac became the most fashionable of spirits and the Charente became the biggest vineyard in France.

In 1789 the locals around Cognac were preoccupied, not with the matters in Paris with the ancien régime but with the frost of the previous winter.  It would have reduced the townspeople to near starvation had it not been for the charitable intervention of some of the wealthier local merchants, notably M Martell. As relative outsiders to the French feudal ways, the Cognaçais were largely unaffected by the Revolution.  During the Napoleonic period they were hurt only by occasional attempts to interfere with trade with Britain which had become their best market.  As a result, Martell and Hennessy were able to gain supremacy, a position they have never subsequently lost.  The defeat of Napoleon in 1815 was a great relief to the region. The town was able to grow beyond its medieval walls for the first time and new rich merchants such as Otard and Dupuy built large houses in the woods around the new town. Even so, Martell and Hennessy retained their pre-eminence and it was they who crucially set the price at which the growers would sell their brandies to the merchants; a pattern that has been continued by the big houses to this day.

The tradition of quality was slow to develop but was largely in keeping with the local temperament. During the 17^th century the Champagnes, known today as the best growing areas, improved steadily and just as the region had produced the best grain, so too they produced the best grapes. By the time of the French Revolution the last areas devoted to growing grapes (the Borderies, an area of land just north of Cognac) had succumbed. Their sweet wines were much prized but a terrible frost in 1766 enabled their rivals in Sauternes, south of Bordeaux, to replace their offerings.

Even before the French Revolution the Cognaçais were not unduly hampered by feudal restrictions. After the death of King Francis 1 the Cognaçais were affected by religious wars. Jarnac, a few miles upstream, was a centre for Protestants, the scene of a crucial battle and later of Protestant redoubt which provided a natural link with the Huguenot mafia, so important for European trade. Even in the 18^th century when the Protestants were not officially tolerated, the Cognaçais refused to help the authorities search them out. The region had become prosperous and socially homogeneous.