Top 100 sweet wines of Cognac
Discover the top 100 best sweet wines of Cognac as well as the best winemakers in the region. Explore the varietals of the sweet wines that are popular of Cognac and the best vintages to taste in this region.
Discovering the wine region of Cognac
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.
Discover the grape variety: Marsanne
Marsanne is a white grape variety that originated in Montélimar in the Drôme, several centuries ago. Marsanne is also found in Cassis, Savoie, Languedoc-Roussillon and Saint-Péray in the Ardèche, where it produces remarkable sparkling wines. The warm, sunny climate of the Rhone Valley, Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence, as well as the dry, stony soil, are ideal conditions for its development. Its bunches are quite large and provide small, juicy berries that are sensitive to grey rot and strong winds. These two grape varieties complement each other perfectly: together they give light wines with little acidity, aromas of yellow fruit, white fruit and flowers with notes of honey and liquorice. This is for example what the appellations Saint-Péray, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, Saint-Joseph, Côtes-du-Vallée du Rhône, Corbières, or Cassis express... which represent about 700 hectares.
Food and wine pairing with a sweet wine of Cognac
sweet wines from the region of Cognac go well with generally quite well with dishes of beef, lamb or pork such as recipes of monkfish with vegetable tagliatelle, leg of lamb with baked potatoes or soft and inexpensive pasta gratin.
News from the vineyard of Cognac
Bollinger Group purchases Sancerre estate Hubert Brochard
The Champagne house expanded into the region when it acquired Maison Langlois-Chateau in Saumur back in 1973. It then bolstered its presence in Sancerre with the acquisition of Château de Thauvenay in 2016. Now it has tied up a deal to bring the family-run Hubert Brochard estate into the fold. ‘The acquisition of Hubert Brochard estate represents a unique opportunity to consolidate our footprint in this fantastic region and to continue to promote, in France and internationally, its savoir-faire ...
Andrew Jefford: ‘2021 has been the year of all the miseries’
How’s the weather been this year? Awful. ‘La nature m’écoeure’, one of my wine-growing friends posted on Facebook on 8 April, having been out to look at the frost-crippled shoots on his vines that morning: ‘Nature disgusts me’. It takes a lot to make a wine-grower feel that. He wasn’t alone. Jeremiads echo around the northern hemisphere as 2021 closes. It’s been the year of all the miseries. None suffered more horribly than the growers of Germany’s Ahr valley, where floodwaters caused by the fou ...
Grand Marnier moves into luxury sphere with two high-end expressions
The liqueur – famed for its use in making Crêpes Suzettes, but also a classic cocktail ingredient – has created a new Exceptional Range, beginning with the launch of Grand Marnier Quintessence. Quintessence combines rare old hors d’âge Cognacs from the Grande Champagne sub-region with the essence of bitter Citrus bigaradia (Seville orange) peels, double-distilled to intensify their flavour. The blend was taken from an old recipe found in the Marnier Lapostolle family archives by Grand Marnier ma ...