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We have just added a new product line to our list. Domaine du Cardiant Bas Armagnac is available in a range of vintages – 1998, 1994, 1988, 1983, 1974, 1973 and 1954 – as well as a very sexy looking XO decanter. This exciting new Armagnac comes from the top Armagnac region and has already created a sensation at our works with its beautiful nutty and prune flavours. Its seriously good and well worth the price.
With the festive season soon to be upon us, we thought that a word or two from the Managing Director, about how to avoid the worst hangovers, wouldn’t go amiss…….
My grandmother used to say “drink a glass of milk to line your stomach”, not sure if that worked but drinking a lot of water before you hit the bottle certainly helps as it dilutes the alcohol before it has time to absorb into the bloodstream. The alcohol causes the blood vessels to dilate, creating a comfortable warm flush but it also depresses the central nervous system in the brain creating a relaxed feeling.
Unfortunately, alcohol also interferes with the secretion of some hormones which inhibit the flow of urine, so the kidneys send water directly to the bladder and you rushing to the loo – instead of reabsorbing it into the body. You only need to drink about 250ml of alcoholic drink for the body to expel up to four times as much liquid. Body water is essential so it will be stolen from the brain making it shrink and causing pain. The more alcohol you drink the more you start to feel sick. Constant urinating leads to a depletion of salts and potassium, and toxins irritate you stomach lining. Your stomach also produces hydrochloric acid so the nerves send a message to the brain that the stomach’s contents are hurting the body and must be expelled! Alcohol also interferes with the production of glutamine, a natural body stimulant. Whilst you are drunk, the levels of glutamine are low encouraging a deep sleep however, the body works hard to produce excesses of the stimulant. This increases brain activity which wakes you up and prevents you from reaching the deepest and most relaxing form of sleep, usually making you tired and hung over in the morning.
So what can we do the following morning to overcome the horrendous head pains and nauseous feeling? Vitamin C is said to be good and a couple of fizzy tablets also help but aspirin can make you feel worse as it affects the lining of your stomach. Coffee can have the same effect so probably water, or some juice, is best in large quantities and with food to help absorb more alcohol. One sure way to help things along is exercise, enough to make you sweat the alcohol out. Sure, it hurts in the short term but normality seems to come quicker the harder you go at it. For me though, I take the easy route, a really hot steam in a sauna for an hour works wonders!
Perhaps though, you should do as we do at Brandyclassics. We taste a lot of cognacs, as you would imagine, and after rolling it around our mouths, chewing it and making sure all parts of our mouths are suitably coated with the nectar, we spit it out! Seriously though do enjoy your Cognacs , there are a lot of different ones to taste so take it easy, you will enjoy them just that bit more.
A new authoritative guide has just been published, written by Nick Faith and called simply ‘Cognac’. This wonderfully researched book covers every aspect of cognac’s long and colourful history, its development through time and a great deal of information on its production and ageing. The book also includes a fully updated directory of the top producers and their products. Cognac is the King of all spirits and has been around since the 16th century. It is a hugely complex and diverse spirit which is several stages on from wine and when understood properly, creates an incredibly exciting encyclopaedia of knowledge. There are more than five thousand different cognacs, all created in different ways by different distillers. It is a shame that so little is understood about cognac by sommeliers and bar managers. Let us hope that Nick’s book gets the attention it deserves; it is not a mere guide, it is the standard to which we should all aspire.
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 by a new law which allowed them to register their trademarks and thus assert their own individuality. Previously most cognacs, especially those sold in Britain, had been sold under the names of the merchants who had imported them in cask, rather as buyers’ own brands are today.
The reduction of customs duties in 1861-62 heralded a brief period of glory when sales tripled in 15 years to nearly 65 million bottles annually. Britain was the biggest market but everywhere in the world, from Latin America to Tsarist Russia, cognac became the most fashionable of spirits and the Charente became the biggest vineyard in France.
The ‘big four’ houses account for 83% of total cognac sales so for smaller producers to be noticed they have to be different. Attempting to address this is Olivier Blanc, co-founder of small organic producer Leopold Gourmel. He has chosen to only produce single vintage Cognac using grapes from the chalky soils of the Grande Champagne cru. These grapes impart minerality into the final spirit and rather than sticking to a rigid distillation process, he adapts his approach to account for the particular conditions of each vintage. The resulting, individual cognacs will be of much greater quality than the mass produced versions and be in keeping with our policy here at Brandyclassics of only stocking pure, single estate cognac with age statements, such as Hermitage.
Trading up to quality drinking occasions
Sales of premium spirit brands in the UK are growing at a much faster rate than in the total alcohol industry as consumers seek to ‘trade up’ to satisfy their need for less but better drinking experiences. This trend has been fuelled by continued austerity in Britain along with the government’s drive to curb the nation’s alcohol consumption. According to the First Drinks Market Report 2013, premium spirit sales have grown in value by 25% in the on-trade and 4% in the off-trade sectors. An influx of foreign wealth, particularly in London, is driving sales for prestige spirits. This increase in high net worth individuals has helped to drive growth at the ‘super’ and ‘ultra-premium’ end of the market, particularly with exquisite, aged cognacs.
Hermitage Cognacs were on top of the podium again in July 2013, this time at the highly prestigious International Wine and Spirits Competition. Recognising the wonderful quality of carefully aged, single estate cognacs, the judges placed both the Hermitage Segonzac 25 year Old Grande Champagne Cognac and the Hermitage Chez Richon 2000 Grande Champagne Cognac at the top of their respective classes and awarded them each a Gold Medal. These latest awards add to Hermitage Cognac’s vast medal haul to date which surely makes it one of the most successful Cognac Houses in existence.
Our export sales continue to increase but our business in Asia has recently had an added boost. Previous sales in Macau and China have been overtaken by our first contract in Thailand. The initial order is underway and agreement to ship a couple of containers annually is in the final stages. We are confident that it will be the start of a long and fruitful relationship with our Thai customers.
Not to be outdone, a delegation of Chinese businessmen is visiting Brandyclassics next month to negotiate a much larger and longer term contract which could amount to five containers per annum. This presents a significant expansion of our sales in China to date and indicates that the Chinese demand for top quality cognac continues unabated. Fortunately the French arm of our business, SARL Hermitage, is ideally placed to provide the infrastructure and logistic support required to fulfill such large, on-going orders.
Coupled with our current customers in Russia and the Middle East, including the Raffles Group and Jurmeirah Hotels in Dubai, this expansion in our export market certainly confirms our position as a truly global supplier of luxury, vintage cognac.
Frapin has launched a new cognac called ‘Plume’ which refers to the symbol of the Frapin Cognac house – the quill. Housed in a decanter featuring a stopper topped by two rose gold feathers, only 500 have been produced. The cognac comes from the Grande Champagne cru and has been aged for over 60 years in 100 year old barrels but whether it is worth the price tag of €2500 is debatable. We cannot comment on its quality but Frapin Cognac has never been quite the same since their cellar master, Olivier Paultes, left to work for Hennessey. During his time with Frapin, Olivier produced many supreme cognacs including the 1991 Trésor du Château which recently won a gold medal and the Best Cognac Trophy at the 2013 International Spirits Challenge. Try comparing these Frapin gems with our own Hermitage 60 year old and 1991 vintage where quality speaks for itself.
The harvest this year will start on the first week of October and the quantities allowed will be substantially greater than ever before. Technically we are allowed to produce nearly 20hl of pure spirit per hectare but this cannot ever be made as it would be impossible to grow enough grapes for such an optimistic target. However, it does at least show that the authorities are serious about increasing stock levels which we hope will save some of the older cognacs being used for the younger blends and allow an increase in overall quantity.
So far the quantities are looking good, as is the quality. We are expecting both the sugar levels and acidity to be good as well but the weather needs to be kind. Poor weather before the harvest could create a very different picture from that which we are currently anticipating. We need every drop we can make this year; we keep our fingers crossed!
