Monthly Archives: April 2011

Hine is one of the most venerable and deservedly respected names in Cognac. It was founded by an immigrant from Dorset, Thomas Hine, who settled in Jarnac in 1791 and married into the Delamain family and became a partner.
The Hine company was founded in 1817 by Thomas who died aged 47. He was succeeded by [...]

During a visit to Cognac last week we have been lucky enough to find two old bonbonnes of rare cognac. Each bonbonne holds the equivalent of about 42 bottles and some will be decanted into bottles next month.
The first container is a rare 1900 cognac which we have found with the help of one of [...]

In 1991  A E Dor introduced their Opera presentation. The firm are ardent believers in blending and they decided to use a 25 year old cognac, which they described as an XO.
What made this bottle so special was not just the attractive red and gold ceramic decanter with its ceramic gold stopper, but the box [...]

In real terms nobody really knows when cognacs were first put into bottles. The first recorded cognacs existed around 1540, but we only know of them being sold in barrels.
About 200 years later, cognacs were being sold from barrels and transferred into small convenient sized hand blown bottles of around 40-50cl. At around this time [...]

The firm was founded in 1805 and cognacs were shipped to Britain and India. In those days there was no Suez Canal and the cognacs were transported by camels across hundreds of miles of desert. They must have liked the cognac, since the name is still used today although the cognacs have changed rather a [...]

Workers at Hennessy’s cellars of Haut-Bagnolet walked out last Tuesday as a show of solidarity against wages. They are seeking a bigger share of the cognac producer's profits.
Urged by the unions (Intersyndicale CGT and Force Ouvriere), employees are not happy at the breakdown of talks earlier in the week at the mandatory annual negotiations about a [...]

Perhaps we best know of Hardy Cognacs for their very old pre-phylloxera cognacs such as the famous 1805, but the firm has prospered in America with more generic cognacs and some special presentations bottles.
The firm was started in 1863 by Anthony Hardy, a wines and spirits trader in London. He moved to the Charente region [...]

Perhaps the question which comes up most regarding the creation of cognac is that of how it is made. Very little consideration is ever given to the ageing process or indeed the actual barrels used for this most critical part of the process. Indeed the cognac production journey from vineyard to barrel is less than [...]

Our Hermitage 1975 Grande Champagne was awarded the Masters Medal in the prestigious 2010 Cognac Masters Competition held in London, beating every other vintage cognac. But not just with a Gold Medal but with the highest accolade of all, The Masters Medal.
So why is this wonderful cognac so good? It was produced on a small12 [...]

Reading a cognac label is relatively easy - reading what is not on the label is a little harder! There are labels that will try and give the illusion that what is in the bottle is better than it is. Since the delimitisation of the region and the creation of cru’s, many have tried to provide [...]