Tag: The Charente Scene

Very much as expected, the grape harvest in 2015 is producing one of the best and biggest quantities of distilled spirit ever.  It looks like the total will be well over 800,000hl, indicating a record year.  Despite this, many distillers are fearful of a new demand on cognac from export markets, especially the USA where a record 4.3 million cases (51.6 million bottles) were sold last year. The US market is predominantly led by Hennessy whose share is 67%, the majority of which is of VS quality.  It has been made popular by influential rappers such as Nas and Jay-Z… Read more

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… Read more