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Hermitage Paradis 1887 Cognac

Hermitage Paradis 1887 Grande Champagne Cognac

March 22, 2023

This remarkable Hermitage Paradis 1887 Cognac was produced by the House of Guiziet. Situated just outside Segonzac, on the road to Barbezieux, it stands on the Cognacian chalk slopes where the vines can penetrate up to thirty metres. At the time, the estate was about 7 hectares in size but, as was commonplace at the time, only produced about 3000 litres of wine from its Folle Blanche grapes.  Once distilled, the ensuing spirit was kept in oak casks in a fairly large cellar with clay floors – ideal for slowly maturing it into fine cognac. Having aged for about 75 years, this cognac was removed from its oak casks and placed into bonbonnes.  Very long barrel ageing has created a beautifully balanced cognac, together with an intense chocolate brown / deep scarlet colour and depth of flavours.

Did you know?  In 1887, the United Kingdom celebrated the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

Hermitage Paradis 1883 Cognac

Hermitage Paradis 1883 Grande Champagne Cognac

March 21, 2023

This Hermitage Paradis 1883 Cognac comes from a tiny village called Corcheville, near Eraville, on the east side of Grande Champagne. The tiny, 3 hectare estate, owned by an M Mallet, grew a mixture of Folle Blanche and Colombard grapes; the latter often provides some peachy flavours to younger cognacs. The cognac was aged in Limousin casks which were almost certainly stored in an old barn.  It would have been damp and with clay floors, ideal for long barrel ageing as the dampness of the barrels helps to prevent the spirit from evaporating.  Having aged for a staggering 90 – 100 years, this cognac was removed from the wood and placed into glass bonbonnes.  It is superbly balanced, with an intense dark tan / deep scarlet colour and depth of flavours, and is presented at its cask strength of 41.4% abv.

Did you know?  In 1883, the English cricket team, on a tour of Australia, were first presented with the ashes of a bail.

Hermitage Paradis 1875 Cognac

Posted in Brandy Bottle Reviews, News, News from the Brandy Houses and tagged , , , , , ,

1875 cognacWe are very excited to introduce a new cognac to our shelves, and our Hermitage Paradis range, the 1875 vintage.  Only a few bottles remain of this old 1875 cognac which originally came from a cellar near Bouteville, in the cru now known as Grande Champagne.  It was distilled on a very small still and then aged for more than 75 years in a cellar built against a limestone cutting.  The cellar floor and walls were natural, with no cement or concrete, which made it ideal for ageing old cognacs.

The production of cognacs in the 18th and 19th centuries was a way of farming the land that growers owned. At the time these cognacs were made, there were perhaps more than 1500 different growers in the region, each making their wines, distilling them and putting them into cellars to age in oak casks. The skills employed had been handed down from generations before them.  Not every brandy which the growers produced was of a quality that stood out as being truly exceptional but now and again a cognac would be sufficiently good to be kept to one side and stored for the future. The year that the cognac was made was always recorded with a chalk mark on the barrel.

 

We understand that this cognac was removed from cask and placed in bonbonnes between 1950 and 1955, making it 75 – 80 years old.  Our tasting notes confirm that the cognac has developed a significant rancio consistent with very long cask ageing.  Specific tasting notes can be found here.

Hermitage Paradis 1875 Cognac

Hermitage Paradis 1875 Grande Champagne Cognac

September 21, 2022

Only a few bonbonnes exist of this old, Hermitage Paradis 1875 Cognac which originally came from a cellar near Bouteville.  It was distilled on a very small still and then aged for more than 75 years in a cellar built against a limestone cutting.  The cellar floor and walls were natural, with no cement or conrete, which made it ideal for ageing old cognacs.

Did you know?  In 1875, the English FA Cup final saw The Royal Engineers beat The Old Etonians 2 – 0 after a replay.

Cognacs With Age Statements

Posted / in Brandy Bottle Reviews, News, News from the Brandy Houses and tagged , , , , , ,

Age StatementsCognac house Maison Bache Gabrielsen has released a new series of cognacs with age statements called Years in Cask.  Good to see them following in our footsteps!  These cognacs are also vintages so by definition they must be single estate and cannot be blended.  Once vintage cognacs have reached their optimum maturity they are transferred to glass bonbonnes where they will mature no further.

Bache Gabrielsen have released 4 new cognacs aged from 19 to 37 years.  The younger two come from Grande Champagne, the top cru, where cognacs take the longest to mature whilst the older two come from Fin Bois, a lesser known cru.  Their prices range from £163 to £344 for a 70cl bottle with abvs being between 40 and 47 percent.  It is great to see another cognac house heralding the benefits of age statement and vintage cognac but before you part with your hard earned cash to try them out, take a look at the quality and price of the following, produced by Hermitage:

Why is the French ‘Paradis’ so special?

Posted / in Brandy Education, Famous Cognac Houses, The History of Cognac and tagged ,

Paradis gatesNot every cognac house has a Paradis – a designated area in the innermost recess of their cellar – but those that exist are steeped in history.  Back in the early eighties, having discovered a cognac which I really liked, I went to the Charente to try and discover its origin. I ended up in Cognac’s twin town, Jarnac, standing in front of an elegant wrought iron gate with an imposing key.  Behind it were about 100 very dusty bonbonnes, each with a chalk board describing what was in them.  What an eye opener – they contained cognacs which dated from as early as 1805. Each bonbonne (a sort of demijohn in a basket), contained about 30 litres of prized spirits and was sealed with wax to maintain its superior qualities.

bonbonnes in a paradisMany cognac families select a few of their finest cognacs for storage in the Paradis.  The point when a cognac has gained all the benefit it can from the wood depends on many factors but ultimately, it is when the cellar master decides that it has reached its optimum quality.  At this stage the cognac is put into glass bonbonnes and sealed so that the generations of gentle maturation in the barrel are preserved. A cognac that has lasted in oak without deterioration for perhaps 60, 70, 80 or even 90 years is going to be good, very good and will have developed the much sought after rancio.

There is little doubt that these cognacs will be superb masterpieces and truly exceptional amongst other cognacs, perhaps worthy only of paradise – the English translation of Paradis. I am sure that these fine old nectars should be preserved and locked away until their greatness can be recognised by true connoisseurs. The Angels have had their ‘share’, what’s left is worthy of far higher. If, when you next visit the Cognac region you visit an old cognac producer, ask if you can taste a cognac from their Paradis. If such a request is granted, savour it.  The cognacs in the Paradis will be the very finest that the house has ever made. If, on the other hand, your request is denied, try our Hermitage Marie Louise.  It’s a very fine example and has already won a number of very prestigious awards.

David on Technical Topics – The Growth of the Armagnac Industry

Posted / in Brandy Education, The History of Armagnac and tagged

armagnac regionThe growth of the Armagnac industry has taken a long time from its very early beginnings.  At the turn of the twentieth century the French boundary commission decided to follow local customs and divide the Armagnac region into three, The Bas Armagnac, Ténarèze and Haut Armagnac, each one corresponding to a geological, geographical and commercial reality. The finest of the armagnacs come from the Bas Armagnac region whilst at the other end of the scale, very little is produced in Haut Armagnac, having never really recovered from the Phylloxera outbreak at the end of the nineteenth century.

The outbreak affected the whole of the Armagnac region and by 1937 it was producing only 22,000 hectolitres of spirit, less than a quarter of that produced in the cognac region. The German occupying forces during the second World War were largely unaware of the spirits’ qualities and left most of the locals’ stock intact.

grapes for armagnac

After the War, some cognac houses invested in the area seeing an opportunity for obtaining additional grapes to be used for making cognac but the quantities available were too small to be of real use. Even so the general quality of the brandy, especially in the east of the region, was poor and there was little or no commercial infrastructure in place.  In the late 1940s trade had slowed to the point where many of the smaller growers, short of cash, simply gave up.

armagnac bonbonnesEven with this reduced vineyard area, demand and production in the 1960s started to grow again.  Sales in the domestic market grew faster than exports and mainly comprised young, cheap brandies.  This resulted in little being left in the barrels to sell in later years as vintage armagnacs but interest in the fruity brandy had begun to develop.  By the start of the 1980s production had risen to nearly 35,000 hectolitres of pure spirit, a level that by 1990 had nearly doubled to 60,000 hl pure. The Armagnaçais had started to realise the many benefits of their spirit over their competitors.

Although cognacs continue to outsell armagnacs by a huge factor, the biggest benefit the Armagnaçais have over their rivals in Cognac is that they can offer so many vintages.  Janneau, who started to market vintages in 1973, claimed that it was their biggest weapon against the Cognaçais as it created an image of quality.

A Great Name Disappears – A.E.Dor is no more.

Posted / in Famous Cognac Houses, News, News from the Brandy Houses and tagged ,

The firm A E Dor has been sold to the Cognac co-operative, Uni-Cognac, for an undisclosed sum. We understand that Uni-Cognac are keen to move into the Far East market and regard the Jarnac based firm of Dor as a significant name in the industry.

The firm had a number of owners including a relative, we believe the brother, of the French President Franҫois Mitterrand before it was bought by Odile and Jacques Riviere. Odile ran the firm and was highly regarded in the industry as a gifted blender.  She became one of the five best female blenders in the industry. Sadly Odile died in a motoring accident and Jacques was at a loss as to what to do with the firm as his knowledge was not in the same league as his wife’s. He offered the management to his daughter, a pharmacist, but she wasn’t interested and eventually his son, Pierre Antoine took on the management. Pierre knows little of the industry and sadly, the quality of the cognacs from the house have deteriorated.

A quarter of a century ago Brandyclassics took on the distribution of A.E.Dor Cognacs. As generic blends of their day they were highly regarded and their old Paradis is still one of the most famous cellars in the industry with its many bonbonnes of old pre-Phylloxera cognac. Now they have been sold to a co-operative, Odile will be turning in her grave.

We still stock a few of the best A.E.Dor cognacs, have a browse here.

 

Numbers on Bottles (Age Statements) -The value in the bottle

Posted / in Brandy Education, Learning about Brandy, News and tagged

Throughout drinking history the age of a bottle’s content has always been contentious, in particular for wines and spirits where age can represent a substantial part of the bottle value. Defining the age of a cognac has, for the vast majority of companies, become all but impossible as they have to buy and blend as many as 3000 different cognacs to meet their sales requirements. To clarify the situation, a set of rules was created by the governing body of cognac, the Bureau National Interprofessionel de Cognac (BNIC). They require cognacs to be aged in oak casks for a specific period of time in order to fall into one of three categories. The youngest is the VS where cognacs must have been aged for more than two years before bottling. The second category is called VSOP where cognacs need to be more than 4 years old and the third category is Napoleon and XO, both of which must be more than 6 years old.

But cognac ages very slowly, especially when stored in the ideal conditions for the spirit, and it is this ageing process that gives it both colour and taste.  Perhaps even more significant is that depending on the region or cru where it is aged, some cognacs can take three or four times longer to acquire an acceptable quality. Cognacs from the Champagnes (Grande and Petit Champagne) may take as long as 50 to 80 years to reach the desired level of maturity and quality.  They have to be distilled at 70 degrees in the final distillation so the subsequent reduction in strength can be very slow and the flavour take time to develop. Additives are widely used by the big houses to improve the colour and to reduce the fiery nature of young spirits.

At Brandyclassics our policy is to only buy cognacs where we know the age and where, particularly with young cognacs, the flavour is not impaired by their youthful aging. We refer to ages, for example a 10 year old where the cognac has been aged in an oak cask for 10 years, and vintages, for example 1975 where the cognac was made in that year and can be any number of years old up to the bottling date. Once the cognac has been bottled, or in the case of some very old ones stored in bonbonnes for later bottling, the quality and taste of each cognac will not change, unless the cork is left out for a considerable period.

Of course, the value of the bottle of cognac with an age statement depends on a number of factors. Firstly, where the cognac comes from, if it is from the top cru, Grande Champagne then it will usually be of greater value than one from a lower cru, say Fins Bois or Bon Bois. Secondly, if the cognac is very old, it will have aged in cellars for a long time and that is expensive. Lastly, many vintage cognacs are in very short supply, particularly those that were made in the early 19th century.   For example where the cognac is very rare and has a story attached to it such as the Massougnes 1801 and 1805, the value can easily be between £10,000 and £150,000.  However, it is worth noting that with some younger cognacs the age of the cognac may be well short of the period between the date and the vintage on the bottle. So when buying old cognacs always try and establish the actual barrel age.  Hermitage Cognacs will always have a bottling date on the back label so that you can be sure how old the cognac is.

A Few Good Armagnac Houses – No 1 Castarède

Posted / in Famous Armagnac Houses and tagged

The firm  Castarède is naturally proud of being the oldest business in Armagnac. They were founded in 1832 by Jules Nismes at the suggestion of a young subprefect, who later became famous as the Baron Haussmann who replanned Paris for the Emperor Napoleon III. The firm was sited at the furthest point  to which the River Baise is navigable and provides direct access to Bordeaux down the River Garonne.

The firm is still owned by the Castarède family, who are also proprietors of the picturesque Château de Maniban at Mauléon d’Armagnac. The Maniban family were members of the legal aristocracy, the noblesse de la robe, who played such an important role in developing Bordeaux’s fine wine estates. They were the first to introduce armagnac to the court of Louis XV and have been associated in the past with many names of the rich and famous.

The firm is not a distiller, it buys its armagnacs exclusively from the Bas Armagnac, most of which were distilled between 1900 and 2000. They keep them in wood until they have reduced naturally to 40%, before transferring them to glass bonbonnes without additives.

Their cellars are at Pont-de-Bordes, Lavardac balancing on the side of a high ridge over the river and create a picturesque view. Florence Castarède is the charming and current family owner of the firm and she has created a range of vintages which is the mainstay of the business today. Most of her armagnacs have been distilled mid range and have flavours of crystallised fruit.