Cognac is the most famous brandy in the world, more famous even than its OldGascon cousin, Armagnac. It comes from the Charentais, a vast region of western France immediately North of Bordeaux, and takes its name from the historic town of Cognac - the long-standing epicentre of local brandy production. In French, cognac is technically classified as an eau-de-vie de vin - a category that covers all spirits distilled from wine. The Full and official name of the brandy is actually "Eau-de-Vie de Cognac" or "Eau-de-Vie des Charentes", but the Short version has become so common that these longer versions almost never appear on labels.
Although little known, the Charentais is one of the largest vineyards in France. It is made up of two administrative departments (Charente and Charente-Maritime), each of which produces more wine per year than the whole of Burgundy. While some of this wine is basic table wine (sold as IGP / Vin de Pays or Vin de France), the vast majority is produced specifically for distillation into Cognac. Legally protected and regulated since May 1936, Cognac was among the very first AOC titles confirmed when the INAO was created in the mid 1930s.
There’s been a focus on making wine production less energy intensive as well as environmentally friendly in order to address climate change. The efforts continue but, as is the case for electric cars where it’s the battery technology that needs innovating, it’s in wine bottles where we’re seeing rapid change. It comes in a two-pronged attack to reduce energy use in manufacturing and then an even bigger emphasis on reducing bottle weight for shipping to reduce fuel usage and thus CO2 production. ...
All 818 lots were sold in the auction, which saw Prince Robert of Luxembourg, chairman and CEO of Château Haut-Brion owner Domaine Clarence Dillon, open up his personal cellar to raise funds for the PolG Foundation. Featuring 4,200 bottles and covering Bordeaux wine royalty spanning more than a century of vintages, Sotheby’s said the auction ‘smashed’ its pre-sale high estimate of around $4m. Two 4.5-litre Jeroboams of Haut-Brion, one from the 1926 vintage and the other from 1 ...
The unnamed collector is set to receive 440 bottles of single malt in total from ‘Cask No. 3’ – 88 each year over the next five years, giving her a vertical series of 1975 Ardbegs bottled at 46, 47, 48, 49 and 50 years old by 2026. The sum paid equates to more than £36,000 per bottle, and is more than 16 times the record amount paid at auction for a single cask of whisky – set in April this year, when a private buyer from the US paid £915,500 (hammer price) for a 1988 Macallan cask. However, pri ...
