Category: Brandy Education

Grappa was originally a peasant drink, designed to provide comfort and strength to the maker – usually a poor peasant in the mountains of northern Italy. Grappa was more than just a drink – it was a tradition, a disinfectant, a medicine, allegedly sovereign against complaints as diverse as depression in old age, toothache, constipation and even bronchitis! Grappa can be consumed in many ways. It used to be consumed as a standard breakfast drink, espresso corretto con grappa with just enough grappa in the espresso to get the blood circulating. A drop or two in the coffee also formed… Read more

Legally the Cognaçais may use a number of grape varieties, although the choice is largely theoretical. The Ugni Blanc or to give it it’s proper name, the St Emillion des Charentes, accounts for about 95% of the total area. The rest is almost totally Colombard and Folle Blanch. This concentration is largely attributable to phylloxera. Cognacs rise to fame was based on two varieties, the Balzac and the Folle (later known as the Folle Blanche) both much despised by locals only interested in fine wines. In the eighteenth century the Colombard which made the delicious sweet wine from the Borderies… Read more

The house of Massougnes is no more, but in its day was the biggest supplier of cognac in the Charente. The house was famous as well, as it has always been owned by the French Noblesse. Brandyclassics have recently  acquired the last bottle of cognac from the estate, a 1810 Massougnes Cognac of  c 90cl, which is available for sale on our website. The family was and still is today directly related to King Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine and their children, King Richard and John of England. Today, the last remaining descendant of the French true royal blood still lives… Read more

One of the difficulties we always find when deciding upon the flavour of a particular cognac is the time of the day we did the tasting. The problem being that our taste buds have greater efficiency in the mornings than in the afternoon or evenings. Not only that but our perception of what we taste can also vary at different times of the day, so a cognac that tastes of roasted walnuts in the morning may taste of green walnuts in the afternoon or vice versa. The sensation of taste is closely related to that of smell and taste is detected… Read more

Many people often ask us to explain the right way to taste brandies so we thought we would make a new year’s resolution to encourage a wider understanding of cognac appreciation. Firstly the glass. Big brandy balloons allow too big a surface area of the brandy exposed to the air. The professional glass is a small tulip shaped glass, but a small brandy balloon will be fine. The cognac should be rolled around the sides of the glass to allow it to form tears down the side. Never swirl the spirit as this will release too much alcohol from the… Read more

During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s when Brandyclassics were developing a strategy for selling cognacs, the key question customers would ask was “Can we have a vintage cognac”. Research has established that more than 93% of customers would prefer to know how old the cognacs they are buying are, rather than rely on a generic description which they do not understand. Brandyclassics have understood customers’ reluctance to buy cognacs which lack individuality for many years. The famous cognac houses spend millions of pounds advertising their homogenous, characterless generic VS, VSOP and XO cognacs, resting on the laurels of past… Read more

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, it was discovered that some cognacs were best removed from the barrel and stored in glass bottles, which prevented them from changing their individual characteristics. To prevent any deterioration in the cognac when it was stored in glass, it was necessary for the bottle… Read more

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 six months. But once the eau de vie is placed in the barrel, fifty years may elapse before a golden cognac comes out ready to drink. Thus the construction and preparation of the barrel is critically important. The cognac barrels are made of oak from… Read more

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 an image of Grandeur on their labels. There are six cognac cru’s. They are from the top, Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies, Fins Bois, Bon Bois and Bois Ordinaire. Very little cognac from Bois Ordinaire is supplied under producer labels. A further term can also be… Read more

Here at Brandyclassics we have often spoken lovingly about the benefits of long ageing. It is a pre-requisite of very fine cognac and there is certainly no substitute that will enhance the flavour. So how is it possible to create a new cognac, given that it needs so long to age in the barrel? We have discussed in these articles previously the need to find stocks produced from the right grapes, distilled in the right shaped and size stills, then aged for a long period in the right barrels. But this is only the start of the process to find… Read more