Enjoying Pineau des Charentes This Summer
Pineau des Charentes is a combination of freshly pressed grape juice and cognac. It comes in two colours, white and red (sometimes known as rosé) and as with cognac, the flavour is affected by its age. Young Pineau is fruity and light whilst older Pineau offers more complex and concentrated flavours with distinctive fresh fruit tones morphing into dried fruit and nuts. Produced exclusively in France’s Cognac region, it has been protected under AOC status since 1945. As a result, this spirited wine benefits from the long-standing expertise and historical know-how of Cognac cellar-masters. It is unique with its aromatic palette and versatility. Wine drinkers are seduced by white Pineau’s balanced profile, while others prefer the generosity of red. Both are food-friendly and pair perfectly with savoury dishes such as fish, white meats or seafood. Pineau’s lightness and alcohol content of 17%, also make it suitable as a digestive or aperitif. While some relish old reds that pair beautifully with chocolate, light cheese, and coffee, others fall for aged whites as great partners of blue cheeses. Alternatively, when summer has arrived, it can be enjoyed at any time as a long, refreshing cocktail such as Pineau Royale or Pinojito.
Another company seeking to recreate a cognac from a past era (see 
At Brandyclassics our philosophy has always been to provide as much support and guidance to our customers as possible. After months of planning we have relaunched our website, displaying images both larger and differently and with a clearer background. We hope the easier navigation will help you find the information and products you need and will be especially useful for those wanting to buy our cognacs and brandies on their portable devices.
We often have requests to do a Brandy Bottle Valuation and whilst sometimes a bottle can have a high value, most brandy valuations will disappoint most people.
We have a fantastic range of 
We are delighted to announce that three of our 
Making sure that our customers really do get the best means that, after we have decided on a potential cognac, we still need to do several tests. The first is of course tasting. It is difficult to say how many cognacs we taste but on some days, it may be twenty or even thirty, others, maybe only one or two. One tends to gather considerable experience when tasting many different cognacs. Then we check the cognac for balance which means balancing the fieriness against flavour. Sometimes we need to reduce the cognac slightly which in some cases take quite a long time. We also check it for sediment as some distillers don’t filter their cognacs before we receive them at our bottling plant. The alcohol level is also tested as legally, this must be quoted on the label. This process also involves checking the level of obscuration (factors which mask the true alcohol content). There is always some natural obscuration which cannot be avoided but in modern blends, the addition of sugar and caramel increases the level considerably.
Not 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.
Many 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 
Sustainable and taint-free corks are the latest innovations to hit the ‘spirit stoppers’ market. Distillery by-products such as grape marc from cognac, barley malt from whisky and juniper from gin make up 50% of the raw materials used to produce ‘Abor’ corks. Manufacturers, the Tapi Group, are “seeking to create brand awareness in an eco-sustainable way” with their ‘green’ and sustainable new closures. Cork Supply, by contrast, have just released a range of ‘taint-free’ corks with a money-back guarantee. Their vision was to “produce quality closures that add value to the industry”; taint-free cork stoppers will surely have a place in the world of cognac. Unlike wine,