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Scent Inspired by Cognac Aroma

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Last month we wrote about how cognac, with its many aromas and flavours, can certainly appeal to women as the same scents are often found in beauty products.  Clearly, we were not alone with this theory; well known television star Sarah-Jessica Parker seems to agree.  She has just released her latest perfume, Stash, after 10 years in the making and happily confesses that it was influenced by cognac and leather amongst other things. An interesting choice but once again highlighting how important cognac aroma is and how it transcends the genders.  Describing the feel she was trying to recreate, SJP obviously felt that a hint of cognac was an attractive proposition.  Not as girlie perhaps as apricots and vanilla, but the more wintery cognac aromas of leather, truffle and cigar box might be more appealing to the female kind than perhaps would have been thought?  If you’d like to make this comparison, try tasting our Hermitage 10 Year Old and Roullet Fransac’s 1970 Cognac:

A Small Taste of Hermitage Cognac Heaven in 20cl Bottles

Posted / in Brandy Bottle Reviews, News, The Bottle Story and tagged

Hermitage 20cl bottlesThe first 20cl bottles of Hermitage Cognac are being launched.  This new concept has been designed to suit the needs of many; connoisseurs seeking to taste some of our more expensive cognacs but also individuals wishing to buy sufficient for a small gathering such as a dinner party or to avoid waste at a cosy function. These sophisticated and exciting bottles are new to the industry and another ‘1st’ For Hermitage Cognacs. Currently a selection of our cognacs are available in 20cl bottles from Hedonism Wines and our website and shortly we will be releasing the new Cognac Café 20 in this format. Ideal to drink with a late morning coffee or as a ‘digestif’ before retiring, the 20cl Cognac Café 20 will be the perfect accompaniment to any occasion.

Our Latest Vintage Hermitage Cognac Releases

Posted / in Brandy Bottle Reviews, News, The Bottle Story and tagged

60 year old cognacBrand new on the shelves this month is our latest Hermitage 60 Year Old Cognac. This remarkable cognac comes from the top cru, known as Grande Champagne, and has been aged in oak casks for more than 60 years.  At a strength of 40.5%, it has autumnal aromas including tobacco, ginger and clove. Its flavours of truffle, clove, liquorice, burnt toffee and dried fig with a finish of dried mandarin are perfect for enjoying with a fine cigar or to celebrate any 60th Birthday or Anniversary occasion.

Working closely with our customers, we have established that there is a growing café bar culture for cognacs.  At Hermitage we are the first cognac house to recognise this need and we have perfected the ideal cognac called Hermitage Cognac Café 20.  This rich mocha and roasted walnut flavoured cognac is more than 20 years old and comes from the top cognac cru, Grande Champagne.  During the second half of the 17th century the London “café society” people were experimenting with new drinks. Non-alcoholic drinks like coffee and tea were new but some liked more robust drinks like port, sherry and a spirit from a small town in Western France called Cognac. Today, Hermitage produce a whole range of cognacs with age statements that are aged naturally, with individual flavours, styles, strengths and ages.  Cognacs, the likes of which you will never have tasted before.

Hermitage 1967 CognacWe are very excited about this summer’s vintage cognac release, the Hermitage Petite Champagne 1967.  At 41% abv, this complex cognac has many charming and attractive qualities. It is mature yet youthful and light. There are flavours of wild cherry, mangosteen, toast, muscat, dried fig, allspice and even a hint of turmeric on the tail.  One cognac in a range of nearly thirty, this is a little piece of Hermitage pure bliss.

Massougnes 1801 sold for £222,000 !!

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Massougnes 1801There was great excitement in the Brandyclassics office this week as the first of our two imperial three quarter gallon bottles of Massougnes Cognac was sold by the famous London store, Hedonism Wines, for £222,000.  The bottle originally came from Marie-Antoinette des Allees, Comtesse de la Bourdeliere, a direct descendent of Louis VII and Elleanor of Aquitaine and their children, King Richard of England and King John. The Comtesse still lives in the Chateau, on what remains of the Massougnes estate, near Aigre. Cognacs from the pre-Phylloxera era are a speciality of ours. In addition to the last remaining bottle of Massougnes (1805), we have a number of other very old cognacs dating from 1789 to 1893. Our post-Phylloxera cognac vintages range from 1900 to 2005.

Cognac Balance

Posted / in Brandy Education, How to make Cognac and tagged

cognac stillThe process of distilling cognacs requires that the wines are distilled twice, the second distillation must be between 67-72.4 degrees. The spirit, known as eau de vie, is water clear and tasting it can render the tongue numb for several days. Little surprise then that young cognacs, aged for the minimum time, have to be reduced to a lower level of alcohol and additives used to colour and hide the aggressiveness of the spirit and so achieve some Cognac balance.

The natural colour of cognac is derived from the tannins in the oak barrels. The use of new barrels after distillation to give the cognac a quick boost can actually provide a more aggressive fieriness in the spirit in the early stages. Whilst a level of colour will develop in the spirit during the first stages of ageing, nothing can overcome the huge imbalance between alcohol and taste until the cognac has been in the barrel for at least ten years. Both sugar syrup and caramel are therefore often used to help address the fieriness and lack of colour in young brandies, a process known as obscuration.

About twenty years ago there was an unscripted charter between the big cognac houses that the maximum obscuration of cognac would be no more than 2%. The increasing demand for young (and cheaper) cognacs has meant that the big houses now buy their cognacs for ageing sometimes only eighteen months after distillation. Often they are bottled as young as 3 years old. This creates a massive problem especially when they are blended with cognacs from the Champagnes which age at a much slower rate than those from other crus. Inevitably, the younger the cognac the more sugar and caramel is needed to create an acceptable level of flavour and balance. As available cognacs become younger, the obscuration level has had to increase and it is now substantially more than 2%.

Of course there is another element to balancing cognacs – dilution. Cognacs will gradually reduce naturally, however, nowhere near quickly enough for the big houses to sell profitably. Young cognacs between 60-65% abv will need more than 50% water adding to them before they can be sold. Water itself is difficult to add successfully though very quick chilling of the cognac can help.

Perhaps the most accepted additive, and one that is far more natural than others, is the use of boisé. Produced by boiling oak chips over and over again in cognac, it is dark in colour and can be viscose. When added to cognac it can provide quite a bitter effect until it has had time to complete its accelerated ageing process. Some people refer to this as a “false ageing” but it is not. It uses exactly the same ingredients as occur naturally in cognac so in effect, it is an age accelerator. However, too much can provide an undesirable bitterness when used in young cognacs.

Balancing the strength and flavour of fine cognacs is a great skill. There is a place for some additives but we avoid the use of sugar and caramel as we believe that any cognac from the Champagnes under ten years old is not sufficiently developed to ever create the truly memorable qualities found in Hermitage Cognacs.

Read more Technical Topics on our Brandy Education page.

The Rancio

Posted / in Brandy Education, How to make Cognac and tagged ,

Brandyclassics MDProfessionally, as an industry assemblage of blenders, cellar masters, connoisseurs, distillers and negoçiants, our aim is to provide the very finest cognacs we can for each market sector. We know that there is no alternative to long ageing in oak barrels to enhance the distillers’ skills and provide the flavour and richness (Rancio) that is so desirable. Perhaps it was by accident in the 16th and 17th centuries that the chemical changes taking place between wood and spirit were noticed. Over the centuries the effects of ageing have been recorded and gradually formed the criteria by which the standard of a modern cognac is defined.

Cognac cellarsPerhaps also by accident, after discoveries of old barrels in the corners of family cellars, it was found that some of the oldest cognacs had acquired a sort of maderization and developed an interesting richness. This effect was noted in some cognacs after only 20 – 30 years of barrel ageing but those from the Champagnes took longer to develop it. Charles Walter Berry of Berry Brothers is said to have described this character of fullness and fatness in some brandies as rankness (rancio), an effect also noted by some tasters of Roquefort cheese.

cognac ageingIt is the oak barrels which produce this most agreeable ‘rancio’. Oak has little or none of the resinous substances found in other woods (that can pollute the spirit with undesirable tastes) and it provides a number of useful elements: tannins the best known comprise a mere 5% and lignin, equally vital, a further 23%. Much of the rest is made up of the relatively neutral hemi-cellulose which gradually dissolves in the maturing spirit and imparts an agreeable sweetness found in older cognacs. The tannins and lignins dissolve at different rates so after 5 years 10% of the lignins and 20% of the tannins will have been absorbed. After ten years this will have doubled but in later years the rate of absorbtion will slow. Conventional wisdom says that in some cases it takes 50 – 80 years to absorb all the tannins in the wood.

Chemically, rancio derives from the oxidation of fatty acids in the spirit into ketones which produce the richness felt on the palate. It is reminiscent of an old madeira wine, a sort of rich pineapple mustiness which we all hope to find when tasting old cognacs. But this is only one of many chemical reactions and their effect on the palate. One team of scientists, led by Dr Heide, detected 334 ingredients in cognac; 24 acetals (ethylates of aldehyde and alcohol), 27 acids, 63 alcohols, 34 aldehydes, 25 ketones, 77 esters, 19 ethers, 3 lactones, 8 phenols and 44 diverse substances. Many of these substances have still not been separated and analysed; some form an important part of the mix; some strongly influence the taste. For example, ethyl compounds are strongly reminiscent of rotten fruit. Finding the right combination of these elements in an old cognac does not always happen but when it does you will know that you have tasted a very fine cognac that may have started its life as much as a hundred years ago. Perhaps the very best example of ‘rancio’ we can offer is the Hermitage 1914 Borderies.

Read more Technical Topics on our Brandy Education page.

Brandy Bottles

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Glass containers and bottles are believed to have first been made around 1500 BC but serious use of containers made out of glass probably did not occur until around 100 BC. More practical applications for glass were established with the advent of glass blowing, probably around a thousand years later. Modern glass bottles are made in commercial moulds and most bottles that contain alcoholic beverages, including brandy bottles, are made of clear glass.

That however has not always been the case. The traditional brandy bottle started life as a green or, as in the case of cognac, black glass container. The dark colour may have been chosen to hide any sediment that had been left in the bottom of the barrel.  Modern glass however is pure and bright which enhances the cognac in the bottle to the highest level. Today we use a wide range of such bottles, many of which are produced from recycled glass.  Although the quality of the glass used varies considerably, we choose to buy all our bottles from Saverglass who have a large depot in Cognac.

Hermitage 1947The size of early hand blown bottles often depended on the quantity of glass the blower had on his pipe and so the quantity each bottle held was largely guess work.  It has now become tradition that the cognac bottle is an upright 70cl size but the volume only became metric in the mid-1950s. Before that, all spirits were measured in imperial measurements.  Strangely, European spirit bottles are now all 70cl whereas in the USA they opt for the slightly larger wine bottle size of 75cl.

Today, there is a general consistency of bottle shapes havingBaron de Sainte-Fauste developed from region to region and beverage to beverage. For cognac the very basic upright bottle shape is known as the “Cognacaise”.  At Hermitage, we use the “Exception” bottle but also a range of carafes to which many customers are attracted. The traditional bottle shape for armagnac is the “Basquaise” which is round with flat sides and for calvados the longer necked “Normandy” bottle is still generally supplied in bottle green.

Read more Technical Topics on our Brandy Education page.

Cognac is Not Just for Men

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Cognac is not just for men With its warm and nuanced flavour, cognac is just as pleasing to women’s palates as it is to men.” says an article in The Amateur Gastronomer and we are inclined to agree.  Why is cognac so often thought of as a man’s drink? Is it because of it’s strength or its flavour? Possibly both but maybe women just need to be introduced to a high quality, pure, luxury cognac with perfect balance and sufficient individuality such that all the different flavours can be recognised and enjoyed? Apricot, Citrus, Vanilla, Sandalwood and Bergamot are some of the aromas and flavours found in cognac; they are also aromas commonly found in women’s perfume. This natural affinity is surely a good starting point when selecting an introductory cognac for a lady? Take our Hermitage 10 Year Old, arguably packed with ‘female’ flavours; there really is no reason why the ladies should not enjoy it just as much as the men.  So next time you are buying a gift remember, Cognac is not just for men.

Camus Ile de Ré Fine Island

Posted / in The Bottle Story and tagged , ,

Ile de Ré Fine IslandIn an attempt to break into the Australian market Camus has released a new and unusual cognac named Ile de Ré Fine Island. Made on the island of Ré, a well known tourist destination and located at the most westerly tip of the cognac region, it is one of only a few cognacs produced in the Bois Ordinaire cru. Most of the ‘eau de vie’ produced in this area is used for making liqueurs with macerated fruits. Experts claim that typically, the cognacs retain the salt and seaweed influence of their viticulture and this, Camus hope, willl be their point of difference as they have set out to target whisky drinkers, particularly those favouring single malts.

40th Celebration Gifts

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40th celebrationsSpecial 40th Celebrations are just that – special – whether they are for a 40th Birthday, 40th Anniversary or any other 40th Celebration they all deserve the perfect present.

Forty years ago, in 1976, some wonderful cognacs and armagnacs were distilled before being aged in wood for decades until reaching their optimum level of maturity. Today, these fabulous nectars are presented as vintage brandies, bottled traditionally and offered as brilliantly fitting celebrations of all great things from 1976.  For the cognac lover choose our Hermitage 1976 or Tesseron 76 and for those who prefer a fruitier flavour, Delord 1976 and Clos de Saveurs 1976 armagnacs will always delight.