Tag: Cognac vines

The Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac (BNIC) is the organisation whose role is to promote, protect and develop the Cognac Geographic Indication and its culture.  In September their technical arm, Station Viticole, reported that one of their research programmes had seen new varieties of vines, resistant to mildew and powdery mildew, harvested in the region.  Six experimental plots are the result of 20 years of collective research work in partnership with the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE), the French Institute of Vine and Wine (IFV), and the main producers in the cognac industry.  The… Read more

Charles Braastad, Managing Director of Delamain, has issued this statement: “After over a century, we are very pleased to once again be cultivating vines. We originally abandoned the practice in 1910 upon the sale of our ‘Bois Clair’ property in Saint-Brice.  At the time it allowed us to focus on selection, blending and ageing of Grande Champagne Cognacs.  From 2019 the house of Delamain is re-committing to the very first moments in the lives of our Cognacs, to their birth and growth in the vineyards.”  There is considerable investment in terms of time and money required to produce cognac so this decision… Read more

The chalky soil of the Charente, particularly in the Champagnes, is not unique since it is also a notable feature of the Champagne growing region (it is the ‘Champenoise’ who stole the name for their famous drink). The chalk provides excellent drainage and can also store substantial quantities of water which the vine roots can easily access. Crucially too, chalky soil, which provides very few nutrients, improves the quality of the grapes. Whilst the ‘terroir’ in the Cognac region can change, the grape varieties used have changed only twice in the last four centuries. In the 17th Century the region… Read more

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 –… Read more

Having spent a very cold weekend in the garden pruning trees, shrubs and roses, I gave some thought to those people who have to be in the cognac vineyards at this time of the year pruning the vines. In theory, there is no reason why the vines cannot be pruned as soon as the leaves have died back but at that time of the year, distillation is in full swing so lack of time prevents it.  Most of the distillations have been completed by the New Year and it is then that the work outside begins in order that new… Read more