Last Updated on February 9, 2024

Learning about cognac while travelling on Le Boat

The Charente is Cognac country. On my way to board our boat at Jarnac, I gazed over vineyards that stretched to the horizon and beyond. Travelling with Le Boat, a company specialising in inland water boating holidays, afforded me wonderful opportunities to experience vineyards up close and to meet with local winemakers who farm in the hills above the Charente River. While moored in Cognac I enjoyed a deeply informative tour of the Musée de Savoir-Faire du Cognac, where I learned a great deal about the history of how the city grew around its famous export. I was also able to moor at tiny jetties along the Charente River to visit some of the producers who devote their lives to producing quality cognac.

 

Although I knew little about cognac before I made the trip, I had tasted a reasonable amount of pineau des Charentes. This is a fortified wine – a blend of a young cognac and grape must left over from wine production, both coming from the same vineyard. The blending occurs at the end of the harvest and is aged in oak casks. I was first introduced to Pineau des Charentes on a trip to the Charente Maritime decades ago and it became my first local purchase on many subsequent visits to the region. Best served chilled, we savour it as an apéritif in a family ritual when holidaying at the Charente coast. While puttering up the Charente River, I jumped at the opportunity to visit a couple of producers of Pineau des Charentes and taste some of their wares.

The first of these visits had us mooring at a tiny pier at Le Village Chez Landart where we tasted a selection of three pineaux – white, red and vieux (aged) –  at Distillerie de 3 Moulins where the Bobinot family have been making cognac and pineau since 1699. We purchased a bottle of Vieux Pineau which had been aged for at least five years. A walk up a steep incline through the hamlet brought us to a plateau covered in vines through which we strolled to the edge of the hill. The view from this mirador was sensational, a bird’s eye perspective down onto the green river, the Charente coiling splendidly through the landscape. Back on the boat, we stowed our purchase in the small bar fridge and in the evening, when we had safely moored for the night, we enjoyed a chilled tipple while bobbing on the river. The doors of some of the world’s largest cognac houses that line the quayside at Cognac were mere metres away.

The next morning we had a private tour at the Musée des Savoir-Faire du Cognac (Museum of Expertise of Cognac is the rough translation). This spacious museum is packed with so much to see and to learn about the history and production of cognac, that you could easily pass a morning engrossed in the exhibits. In order to be called cognac – which is a Protected Appellation with strict laws for its production – the grapes must be grown within a defined geographical zone. This area is divided into six categories starting from Grand Champagne (not related to champagne from Reims). These zones are defined by the quality of the soil and the proximity to the sea among other criteria. There are acronyms for the age of each cognac in English, owing to the history of trade with Britain: VS, VSOV, XO. VS is very special (two years), VSOP is very superior old pale (four years) and XO is extra old (10 years).

We received a thorough education about the history of cognac production from our guide. In the 1600s, wines began to be transported to Northern Europe from the Charente region. However, white wine exported to Belgium, Holland and England was difficult to conserve. Therefore, a solution was found – distillation – and cognac was born. Initially, cognac was mixed with water and known as brandy wine. It was then discovered that leaving the wine in the barrel for a long period of time improved the flavour. Due to huge earning potential, merchants began setting up distilleries on the Charente in Cognac, bringing prosperity to the region for three centuries.

The 19^th century was the golden age of cognac (and Cognac), with global exports matching those of whiskey. Cognac houses became empires with their own dynasties. However, the golden age came to an end in 1863 with the arrival of phylloxera, a pest imported in error from the Americas. The decimation of Charente’s vineyards is excellently illustrated and explained in the museum. With no known antidote, the pest destroyed most of the vines in the world and changed the face of cognac production. Different solutions were attempted, from flooding the vines to adding carbon disulphide. The best solution was grafting. Hybrid vines were created by taking root stock from thicker American vines more resistant to phylloxera and grafting them onto the European vines. Although highly effective, the French resisted this solution due to their negative opinion of American wines. Therefore, the French persisted with the method of using carbon disulphide until the 1920s, despite its devastating effect on farm workers exposed to this toxin. The cognac trade never fully recovered. Before phylloxera, there were over 300,000 hectares of vines dedicated to cognac. Today, there are around 80,000. Villages became deserted, and families lost their incomes. Smaller producers went out of business, allowing the large cognac houses to buy up their land while continuing to sell from their large cognac reserves.

In any cognac house, one of the most influential people is the Maitre de Chef, the cellar master responsible for the blend. Different harvests from different years are used from different parts of the region. The role is passed from generation to generation, requiring an astute sense of smell. The Maitre de Chef is also responsible for ageing the wines (for years on end). Only they are allowed to enter the area where the most prestigious cognacs are stored, known as Paradise.

In the distillation process, about two per cent of the cognac evaporates. This portion is known as the Angel’s share. It blackens the walls of the buildings used to house ageing cognacs. There I was thinking that Cognac needed a good scrubbing; the blackened walls are host to a local fungus that feeds off the evaporated cognac.

Nowadays, much of the hard work of harvesting the grapes is done by expensive machines. However, a lot is still done by hand, especially in small vineyards or in areas where the land does not allow for machinery. It is back-breaking work. The machinery is on display in the museum’s collection alongside the enormous grape presses.

After the history of cognac production, we learned about the cognac brand. A room full of portraits of the cognac aristocracy shows the elevated social status of those who ran the cognac houses. I especially enjoyed the rooms displaying posters advertising cognac from the end of the 19^th century, as well as a jaw-dropping collection of cognac bottles. This type of bottle display is typical in the hotels and bars of Cognac. The labels on the bottles also reveal an elaborate set of designs – little artworks in themselves. The museum has 28,000 cognac labels in its collection, displayed in rotation.

Today, 97% of cognac is exported. The US is the biggest market, drunk mainly in cocktails. Cognac is frequently referenced in hip-hop music, usually by name-dropping Hennessey (or Henny), one of the biggest cognac houses. Jay-Z partly owns another big cognac house, Chateau Dusse.

While in Cognac, one can visit some of the world-famous cognac houses including Hennessey and Martell, to learn about the process of distilling cognac. Alternatively, you can learn everything you need to know on a visit to a local producer. Sailing along the river on Le Boat facilitated this option. After being emailed the co-ordinates, we moored at a tiny pier near a campsite, where we were collected and taken to the Brard-Blanchard farm and winery at Boutiers-Saint-Trojan. Fifty years ago, this family business became only the second wine farm in the region to transfer to organic farming, a method that remains rare.

We were shown around the vineyard by grape farmer and wine producer Sophie Laguerre, who, along with her father, Jacques Brard-Blanchard, produces wine, cognac and Pineau des Charentes. After receiving an explanation about the ten grape varieties they farm (most wine farms only grow one), we went indoors where I was delighted to get close to the hugely impressive copper still that is used for double distillation. To be called ‘cognac’, the wine must be distilled in copper. Once we heard an explanation of the distillation process we were ushered into the cave where the oak barrels sit in the dark surrounded by fungus hanging in the air. It was a thrilling experience to stand beside the barrels in which the magical process was occurring.

I relished talking to Laguerre, who is truly passionate about caring for the land and is an expert distiller. She is also responsible for bottling, labelling, promoting and selling her wines, cognacs and pineau. It is a tough job and so varied from day to day and season to season. While the grapes for wine and pineau production are picked by machines, the grapes for cognac are picked by hand.

Global warming is a big threat to these small businesses. To make cognac, wine growers need grapes with high levels of acidity so that the wine can sit in the tanks between the harvest (late September/ October) and the end of the distillation period (late March), without going off. The increased temperature as a result of global warming reduces the acidity level of the grapes and insufficient rain increases the alcohol level. This is damaging to cognac production.

Of course, no visit to a producer of Pineau des Charentes would be complete without buying a bottle to savour later. After tasting a range of bottles, I opted for a rosé, one style of pineau that I had not tasted before. It certainly looked pretty in pink when we had our apéritif while moored at Bourg-Charentes in the evening, ahead of our Michelin star dinner at the restaurant nearby, La Ribaudiere.

A trip on the Charente has so much to offer visitors on Le Boat. A detailed regional guide is available on the Le Boat website which provides information about all the towns located along the river and the sites and sights you will not want to miss, including excursions, historical museums and restaurant suggestions.

Musée de savoir-faire du cognac, Les Remparts, Pl. de la Salle Verte, 16100 Cognac

Brard – Blanchard Vignerons, Boutiers 16100 Cognac

Distillerie de 3 Moulins, 61 routes des Fontaines, Chérac

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