The New Year is traditionally the time to consider all things new – like the latest vintage from Hermitage Cognacs. It is 50 years since the Hermitage 1966 Grande Champagne Cognac was distilled. Aged to perfection in oak barrels, only a few bottles of this precious treasure remain. Rare, complex and with incredible balance, this cognac makes a fantastic gift for a 50 year old birthday or anniversary, or to commemorate something special that happened in 1966… like England winning the World Cup!
By the turn of the 19th Century, Ugni Blanc had replaced Folle Blanch and Colombard as the most widely used grape for producing Cognac. Grafted onto a new rootstock it helped the Cognaçaise rebuild their industry after the Phylloxera outbreak. At about the same time producers started to plant their vines in rows, rather than the uneven bush planting method used previously, and a greater concentration of vines per hectare was achieved. More recently this has enabled the use of grape-picking machines and with careful pruning the vines, which are now grown on wires, reach a height of 1.2 – 1.5m. Although vine planting is controlled, at a maximum of 3000 per hectare, recent improvements in viniculture have seen the level of alcohol per hectare produced significantly increase. However, weather is still the biggest factor in determining the quality of the harvest and thankfully for the last 20 years it has been pretty good. A great recent vintage to demonstrate the quality is Hermitage 2005 Cognac; try it you won’t be disappointed.
Brandy has been the traditional spirit of Christmas since the sixteenth century and was immortalised by Dickens in Mrs Cratchit’s Christmas pudding, “blazing in half of half a quarter of ignited brandy”. But it is said that cognac was recognised in 1540 after a Chevalier du Maron took two casks of newly reduced or distilled wine to a local monastery near La Rochelle. The monks tasted one of them and found it to be fiery and tasteless so left the other cask unopened. Many years later they found the unopened cask, the contents of which had matured and were very fine. They named the drink after the town it had come from, Cognac.
Cognac has been used over the centuries in all sorts of ways including the preservation of food, in particular meat and fruit where the term “plumming” referred to soaking raisins in brandy. Both fruit and meat were often incorporated into puddings which were much admired by George I, also known as the Pudding King. So enthusiastic was he that in 1714 he demanded that “plum pudding” be served at his Royal Christmas Feast. Brandy was often used to flame the pudding before serving.
In more recent times, Cognac was the favourite drink of Churchill who often enjoyed it with a cigar. It was said by the last French owner of the cognac house Croizet, that during the war, bottles of their cognac were smuggled out of France by submarine for Mr Churchill. He favoured the fine citrus qualities of their Grande Champagne cognacs.
Today, Hermitage Grande Champagne Pure Vintage Cognacs offer the finest traditional values at Christmas, but we do recommend you enjoy them as they are rather than set fire to them on your Christmas pudding. Visit our Online Store to see the whole range.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the brandies produced in the Charente were reduced by distillation as this made them easier to ship abroad. The risk of low alcohol wines going off before they reached their destination was avoided and the intention was to cut them back with water before they were consumed. But the Cognaçaise soon found that keeping the strong wines in barrels changed them for the better and so they started to learn the skills of distillation.
The basic concept of distillation is that you boil the wines, collect the vapours that escape and then allow them to condense back into a liquid. It sounds ridiculously simple but there are many things that can go wrong unless the process is carefully controlled.
Cognacs are double distilled, that is to say that after the first distillation the wines are re-introduced into the still to be distilled a second time. During the process most of the chemical changes in the wine occur, at a temperature of less than 40 degrees, during the first distillation. Careful consideration must therefore be given as to that which is put into the still. Most modern day cognac distillations include the lees; this is anything but the juice. Most lees used consist of the pulp of the grape. In some cases the skin is also added but the pips and stalks are not as they will introduce an unacceptable bitterness. Some purists will filter out the lees and distil just the juice but this provides a cognac with less flavour and ultimate complexity. It is the yeast in the wine that contains esters which enrich the cognac and provide more flavour.
The first distillation is regarded by many as the most important as this is when the essential qualities of the fruit are extracted. The slower the cooking the more thoroughly the flavour in the wine is absorbed into the resulting brouilli (a cloudy and non-descript liquid at a strength of between 28 – 32 degrees). The brouillis is undrinkable and it is quite impossible at this stage for the distiller to determine the qualities of the final liquid.
The second distillation is known as the Bon Chauffe (good heating). Not all the newly distilled liquid or eau de vie is used. The first quantity, of around half a percent, is known as “the heads” and is discarded as it is too strong and will probably clog with some of the solids. The last part of the distillation, “the tails”, will be too weak. They can be re-introduced into the still but this is in itself a major decision. If the tails are used they will be distilled twice more and will create a level of neutrality in the final spirit. The middle part, which is probably greater than 95%, will be stored in new barrels for a few months to provide the new spirit with an initial boost of flavour and colour. The distillation range of the second boiling must be between 67 – 72.4 degrees, above this range the spirit will be burnt and below it there will be insufficient refinement in the final cognac.
The cognac distillation process is the most technical part of making the golden nectar. It is the stage where the wine is reduced to a spirit, which we refer to as ‘eau de vie’. Distillation is carried out twice. The first time it changes the wine to a ‘brouillis’, a cloudy liquid with a strength of around 27 – 30% alcohol, and then it is distilled again. In this article we will consider the distillation equipment required and next month we will explore the process.
The complete distillation process is controlled by the Bureau National Interprofessionel du Cognac (BNIC) and every distiller must comply with the rules that protect the name of ‘Cognac’. The process usually starts at the end of October once the grapes have fermented and changed into a relatively low alcohol, acidic wine.
The bulbous, onion shaped, original design of the cognac still is largely accredited to the Dutch in the seventeenth century and has not changed significantly since. Sitting on top of this still is the chapiteau or still head. This is where the vapour rises after boiling and before continuing into the swan’s neck, an appropriately named pipe extending from the top of the still head. Eventually the vapour enters the serpentin, a large coil in a water tank, where it condenses before entering a tank ready for the second distillation.
Different still designs can influence the cognac’s final flavour. Firstly the size of the still is important. The smaller the still the more distinctive the cognac it produces whereas larger stills tend to provide more neutral flavours. The problem of neutrality is also created by the shape of the still head. Large, wide onion shaped stills allow the vapour to drip back into the still, a process known as rectification, and so the spirit is re-distilled. Conversely, narrow, shallot shaped heads allow the vapour to leave the still faster, with less risk of it condensing, before it has rounded the swan’s neck.
The other choice distillers must make is whether or not to use a chauffe-vin , a type of heat exchanger which sits between the still and the serpentin (condenser). This enables the warmth of the hot vapour to warm the wine before it enters the still for boiling whilst the initial temperature of the wine cools the vapours to initiate condensation.
Next month I will look at the Distillation Process. To read more Technical Topics, go to our Brandy Education page.
A virtually indestructible suitcase, with special inserts for bottles, goes on sale in the UK shortly for £229. The hard shell with high density foam inners protects the bottles whilst in transit and no doubt ‘does what it says on the tin’. Here at Brandyclassics though, we find that wrapping your bottles with woolly pullies and packing them in the middle of a stout case works just as well. Think what a lovely bottle of cognac you could buy for £229 instead ….. like this A.E.Dor No 7 for instance!
A Chinese woman reportedly downed a full bottle of XO cognac at a Beijing airport security control after being told that she could not take it on board. Staff told her she was not allowed to carry the bottle in her hand luggage because it exceeded the 100ml limit and so, not wanting to waste the purchase, she apparently drank the entire contents. This did not seem to help her cause any as she was then deemed too drunk to board the flight. But looking on the plus side, at least she was probably too inebriated to taste most of it!
One of the few XOs we stock is certainly too good to be treated in this way – the Fontpinot is to be savoured and enjoyed. View our whole range of luxury cognacs here.
The owner of Bargain Booze, one of the UK’s largest off licence chains, is moving into the On Trade business with its recent purchase of Matthew Clark. Bargain Booze is renowned for its cut price alcohol brands and has recently taken on Aldi in the direct comparison advertising stakes. They have clearly set out to dominate the cheaper end of the alcohol market. Matthew Clark has also had its cut price strategies providing cheap blended cognacs and spirits to the On Trade free of charge with accompanying orders. Whilst very appealing to the recipients this is very disappointing for the customers who are looking for luxury cognacs with individuality. It is little wonder that so many good quality cognacs are being (mis)guided into the mixer market and now sadly, as a result of this takeover, there will be even more inexperienced cognac distributors selling what is a very complex product.
Take a look at these luxury cognacs that should never be wasted in a cocktail!
A cocktail made in an Australian casino using 1858 Croizet Cognac was sold for £8,200 – earning it a place in The Guinness Book of Records. Just prior to purchase, a $32M heist involving the original client, prohibited him from completing the transaction. Desperately wanting the Record to be authorised, another casino regular was persuaded to stump up the cash on the understanding that it would be paid back afterwards! So now the PR melee surrounding the Record has been replaced with one suggesting it is all a fake. Extreme lengths to go to for a bit of publicity but more importantly, what were they doing putting 1858 cognac into a cocktail anyway? Read more about these pre-Phylloxera cognacs here.
Strange, in our last edition we commented how attitudes had changed in the Charente vineyards as the wet and cold weather had changed to warm and dry. We went from doom and gloom to great optimism and indeed the current news on the harvest is that it will beat last year’s whopping 770,000 hl pure alcohol. Many are predicting that it will exceed 800,000 hectolitres of pure alcohol or 112 million bottles at 40%. So far so good but there is a problem. It seems that the markets, especially those in the Far East and Russia, have not increased and some have dropped in their purchases of cognac. Now we have more than we can sell and the growers are worried that the big houses will not buy their cognacs. Guess what, its doom and gloom again over there!
The New Year is traditionally the time to consider all things new – like the latest vintage from Hermitage Cognacs. It is 50 years since the Hermitage 1966 Grande Champagne Cognac was distilled. Aged to perfection in oak barrels, only a few bottles of this precious treasure remain. Rare, complex and with incredible balance, this cognac makes a fantastic gift for a 50 year old birthday or anniversary, or to commemorate something special that happened in 1966… like England winning the World Cup!
