Category: The Cognac Process

By the mid-20th century the ‘big two’ cognac houses had become the ‘big four’ with Courvoisier and Remy Martin selling substantial quantities to both the Asian and American markets.  Demand from major cities such as Detroit and Cleveland really helped to boost sales. Remy focused their appeal on cognacs made in the Champagnes but across the board, the growers were not ready for the inevitable surge in demand. Vast new vineyards were planted and as viticulture techniques continued to improve, production levels increased dramatically.  Even so, keeping up with the large volume demand from the big houses was challenging for… Read more

The end of World War II ushered in nearly 30 years of increasing cognac prosperity. The body that was formed to monitor the quality and movement of cognac was known as the Bureau National Interprofessionel du Cognac (BNIC). It managed to greatly improve the relationship between growers and merchants and was, in turn, lubricated by their prosperity. The biggest changes came in the structure of the major firms. In 1947 Martell and Hennessy did not renew their partnership agreement. Martell remained independent and Hennessy merged with the Champagne firm, Moet & Chandon.  In 1971 these ‘Big Two’ houses became the… Read more

Many of the established growers and merchants recognised the need to establish a body to control and manage the quality and sale of cognac. Much of the preliminary work had been done before the Second World War and a great deal of de facto independence from the government had already been gained – the Charente region had been divided into crus in 1909, as a natural consequence of the system of Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée,  and  the geographical areas had been delimited by government in 1936. During the War a wine and eaux de vie bureau was created to try and… Read more

The Phylloxera outbreak in 1872 was, in hindsight, the best thing which could have happened to the growers and viniculturists in the Charente. Instead of just producing cognacs for blending, they had to start thinking about what their customers wanted.  At the turn of the 20th century the plague had left many of the growers in a desperate state.  Some of the more financially better off and larger merchants were therefore able to buy land at knock down prices; around one tenth of 19th century values.  Cheap land meant that the vineyards could be replanted with the specially imported American… Read more

One of the biggest changes in cognac production in the 19th century was the change of grape from the Folle, or Folle Blanche as we know it today, to the Ugni Blanc after the Phylloxera outbreak in 1872. The Cognaçais were, in effect, forced to try and understand their viniculture on a more sophisticated level. By controlling crop levels, so as to reduce stress on the new roots, controlling disease and the timing of harvesting the grapes, the quality of the wine improved and therefore the cognac. The clearer thinking on viniculture also rubbed off on the viticulture and the… Read more

Replanting after the Phylloxera outbreak did not restore prosperity.  After the First World War came Prohibition in the United States and crippling state duties in Britain as well as State monopolies in Canada and Norway.  Things became so bad that in 1922 Hennessy and Martell signed a pact to work together, effectively carving up the world markets between them. Ironically, it was the German occupation of 1940-45 which provoked the springboard for post war cooperation and prosperity.  Cognac was occupied during the war but the commander was a sympathetic figure named Herr Klaebisch.  He had been in school in Cognac… Read more

The prosperity from the trade with Britain in the late 1800s was sadly doomed as production rose even faster than consumption. Thousands of acres were planted with vines to supply the anticipated surge in sales.  This threatened overproduction was however, overtaken by an even worse disaster. In the early 1870s the infamous louse, Phylloxera Vastatrix, arrived in the Charente and by the end of the decade it had spread to the whole of the region. The plague ended the 100 years of independence by the growers and their stocks grew even more valuable as the devastation spread. The growers tried… Read more

In the decades after the fall of Napoleon, newly rich merchants like Messrs Otard and Dupuy built large houses in the woods around the town and with the growth of other firms, such as Martell and Hennessy, the town expanded beyond its walls. It was these big houses who set the price at which the growers would sell their brandies to the merchants who formed hereditary relationships with the growers. They were bound not by contracts but by the habit of regular trading between them in an agreed form and style of cognac. In 1857 the merchant’s position was strengthened… Read more

In 1789 the locals around Cognac were preoccupied, not with the matters in Paris with the ancien régime but with the frost of the previous winter.  It would have reduced the townspeople to near starvation had it not been for the charitable intervention of some of the wealthier local merchants, notably M Martell. As relative outsiders to the French feudal ways, the Cognaçais were largely unaffected by the Revolution.  During the Napoleonic period they were hurt only by occasional attempts to interfere with trade with Britain which had become their best market.  As a result, Martell and Hennessy were able… Read more

The tradition of quality was slow to develop but was largely in keeping with the local temperament. During the 17th century the Champagnes, known today as the best growing areas, improved steadily and just as the region had produced the best grain, so too they produced the best grapes. By the time of the French Revolution the last areas devoted to growing grapes (the Borderies, an area of land just north of Cognac) had succumbed. Their sweet wines were much prized but a terrible frost in 1766 enabled their rivals in Sauternes, south of Bordeaux, to replace their offerings. Even… Read more