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Cognac, a brandy that takes its name from the commune of Cognac, has much in common with French wine. Familiar characters mark its history, including the British, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and phylloxera.
The region is built on terroir, with six regions whose differing soils, aspects, and climates add complexity to the final product. What sets Cognac apart from wine is that it undergoes the process of distillation. Wine from Cognac is distilled twice in alembic Charentais pot stills, named after the Charente River, which is the heart of the Cognac region. Furthermore, unlike French wine, Cognac is almost exclusively an export product. Together, 4,300 winegrowers, 120 professional distillers, and 270 merchant firms work to produce a storied beverage that can be found throughout the world.
Cognac is in southwest France, just north of Bordeaux. Like Bordeaux, Cognac has a maritime climate influenced by its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, which provides moisture to aid in the long oak aging that gives Cognac its characteristic flavor. The heart of the region lies along the Charente River, which provides access to the chais, or “cellars,” of the town of Cognac and historically was used to ship the spirit from the region. The river runs low in the summer, requiring flat-bottomed boats, but rainy winters cause it to run very high and even flood. In 1982, the flooding was so severe that the chais were inundated, sending casks of brandy bobbing down the river.
The individual subregions of Cognac were mapped by geology professor Henri Coquand, who conducted the first scientific studies of any winegrowing region in the 1850s. Charentais by birth, he defined the chalky Coniacian, Santonian, and Campanian soils of the region that were noted for producing the best Cognacs. He and an official taster would travel the region on horseback, surveying the vineyards. While Coquand would predict the quality of a vineyard based on its soils, the taster would use his palate, and, as Coquand “taster and geologist never once differed.” Based on these studies, the region is divided roughly into six concentric circles, centered around the Grande Champagne. Note that “Champagne” in Cognac does not indicate sparkling wine; rather it is a reflection of the word’s etymological origin—a derivation of the Latin word for “plain”—and a similarity in the dominant soil of Grande Champagne and Petite Champagne. These two regions have a high percentage of soft chalk, the preferred soil for Cognac, whereas the outlying appellations have higher proportions of hard limestone, sand, and clay.
Each Cognac region produces distinct brandies with their own characteristics, in part because of the soil types most associated with each region. Cognacs from the desirable Grande Champagne and Petite Champagne make some of the most elegant spirits, while regions such as the Borderies, Bons Bois, Fins Bois, and Bois Ordinaires provide the backbones of entry-level brandies.
If 100% of a Cognac comes from a region, it is eligible to have that region’s name appear on the label. Often, producers will add “Premier Cru du Cognac,” which is an unofficial term for the region, to the label of a Grande Champagne. If a Cognac is a blend of a minimum of 50% Grande Champagne and the remainder from Petite Champagne, then the Cognac is eligible for the label Fine Champagne.
When Henry II came to the English throne in 1154, there was reason to celebrate in the Charente region. With his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, just two years earlier, English trade shifted focus from regions on the Seine River to regions in Aquitaine, such as the Charente and the Gironde. English control of Aquitaine over the next 300 years ensured the importance of the wines of Cognac, Armagnac, and Bordeaux on the English table, relegating the wines of Champagne and other regions on the Seine to the background.
During this period, Cognac was famous for its salt, which was highly regarded for preserving fish and meat and widely traded by the Flemish, Scandinavians, and Germans. Because of Cognac’s location on the Charente, a tidal river that became very shallow at Cognac, salt and other goods had to be transferred from larger oceangoing vessels to river barges, helping the region become a major center for commerce.
Photo: Charente River
Caption: The Charante River today (Credit: Adobe Stock)
Henry II incentivized vine planting in Cognac by encouraging the common practice of renting land to farmers on the condition that if they planted vineyards, they could keep half of the production as an annual fee. Since wines of this era were of dubious quality and would often spoil quickly, producers aimed to complete harvests in early September so that they could ship their wines by October to arrive at markets by Christmas. This timeline benefited Cognac and Bordeaux; because these regions were located near major Atlantic ports, their wines had less distance to travel than those of many others.
Almost two centuries after Henry II ascended to the throne, the Cognac region was devastated by both the Black Death and the Hundred Years’ War. Raiders cut vines—which would take five years to recover—and, devastatingly, killed many of the area’s citizens. In the end, Cognac was unable to return to prominence until the English were driven out in 1453 and a local man rose to the throne.
Francis I, born in Cognac in 1494, ascended to the French throne in 1515. He granted Cognac exemptions from many taxes, forced loans, and army levies. This tax advantage coincided with the first records of distillation in the region, with a record of sale for a barrique d’eau ardente (“barrel of burning water”) being shipped from Bordeaux in 1517. Although the first distillers in the region were probably in Armagnac, the Cognacais were able to leverage their long history of mercantile trade to establish their distilled wines in foreign markets. Still, this was at a time when much of the raw wine, fuel, and oak for casks was being shipped to the Dutch, who were using it to distill their own beverage, which they called brandywijn (literally “burnt wine”).
The Cognacais began steadily increasing brandy production during this period. The first mention of a distiller is from 1571: Jehan Serazin, marchand et faizeur d’eau-de-vie, from the area of La Rochelle. Records from 1622 show that brandies from Cognac paid 9 livres tax, while brandies from Bordeaux paid 8.5 livres, and other regions in Spain and France paid 7 to 7.5 livres—a testament to the quality of the distillate.
In many areas, distilled wines had to go through the distillation process multiple times, resulting in rectified, neutral spirits. Although the cahier des charges for Cognac celebrates the local soldier-poet Chevalier de la Croix Maron for inventing a quality spirit from double distillation (he wrote about having “distilled the springtime of my spirits” in La Muse Catholique in 1607), it is more likely that the quality of Cognac’s base wine was so high that it needed to be distilled only twice. With the shift toward distillation, Cognac producers were attracted to Folle Blanche, which yields an acidic, low-alcohol wine suited to distillation and was easier to grow and harvest when compared with Colombard, the previously dominant grape for sweet wines.
While Cognac was marked by hardships in the Nine Years’ War and the War of the Spanish Succession, the resulting drop in supply seemed only to enhance its status in markets such as London. This desire for Cognac, combined with the loose financing available in the early 1710s, generated an economic boom and led to the establishment of many new Cognac firms, including Jean Martell and Rémy Martin. In 1720, production hit a peak that would not be seen for the rest of the century, with almost no wine exported. All the region’s production was in spirit, and the transition to distillation was complete.
The Role of the British
In the early 1700s, Cognac was extremely popular in Britain, drunk as a cordial, an aperitif, or a tall drink with soda, and used as an ingredient in punch. Taxes, wars, and harvest shortfalls, however, could cause demand to vary widely with the British. The Irish market, which was very price sensitive, would use up the surplus, since it did not have ready access to substitutes like gin or rum—although demand cratered when the whiskey boom came to Ireland in the mid-1700s. In the decades that followed, demand for Cognac spiked whenever there was a grain shortfall, a drop in rum production, or a war that cut off trade with alcohol producers. Cognac became a niche product with opportunities for mercantile minds.
Cognac eventually found stability with London merchants and consumers who were interested in quality. By the 1770s, although the Dutch bought the greatest quantity of Cognac, London was the largest market for the best “champaign brandy” and had over 60 importers. The influence of the London market ultimately determined the style of Cognac as it is known today. Northerners such as the Dutch and Germans wanted colorless brandies, but the British preferred a brown brandy. Shipped from Cognac to Britain, brandies would often age in barrels at London warehouses, where the constant low temperatures and high humidity yielded a lightly floral and delicate style of Cognac. At the time, Cognac aged in France was a rarity, and most of the aged product in Britain was in this “early landed” style, with a Cognac being designated as “old” after three to four years.
The hailstorms and harsh winter of 1788 to 1789 that decimated grain production also damaged Cognac production. The 1789 harvest, the third consecutive poor harvest, was only a twentieth of normal. Shrewd operators like Richard Hennessy noted that merchants with enough capital would buy up a year’s production and did not sell until they saw whether the next vintage would be good or not. Hennessy created a duopoly with Martell that lasted until 1954, emerging as the dominant force in Cognac as it built up enough capital to concentrate on brandy. During the Revolution, the Martells commanded the local national guard, while Hennessy made money by selling to the revolutionary government, even trading its brandies for grain to import for the French Republic.
Merchants in Cognac benefited greatly from the rise of the French First Republic, established when the monarchy fell in 1792, by purchasing cheap property confiscated from the aristocracy. Even the subsequent Napoleonic Wars were not a barrier to success, as the abolition of royal taxes made Cognac’s prices competitive in British markets, where French merchants were able to use neutral shippers—such as those from America—to send their product to London via Germany.
The larger merchant houses composed most of the trade. In response, in 1838, Pierre-Antoine de Salignac organized winegrowers into the Société des Propriétaires Vinicoles de Cognac (SPVC), a cooperative to challenge the influence of Martell, Hennessy, and Otard Dupuy. Salignac had modern ideas, including grading by age and quality, arguing that markets such as Britain could afford higher prices. The cooperative was so successful that it soon joined the other three firms in dominating the market.
The rise of Emperor Napoleon III was a boon to the Cognacais. As exporters, they spent considerable effort skirting trade barriers and taxes, and Napoleon III’s free-trade policy was unprecedented at the time. The population of Cognac doubled during his rule, and the region was successful even when faced with the major challenge of oidium. During the late 1840s, sales were at 200,000 hectoliters per year; with the advance of oidium, sales dropped to 110,000 hectoliters per year in the 1850s. But the discovery of copper sulfate as a treatment allowed Cognac to bounce back quickly. By the early 1870s, sales had risen to 450,000 hectoliters per year and the region was extremely profitable. Even so, Cognac remained a top-heavy enterprise, with Hennessy, Martell, Otard Dupuy, and SPVC controlling nearly 60% of exports.
During the 1840s and 1850s, most production was exported immediately. Growers reserved their older brandies, while the larger firms traded in younger brandies. At the time, nearly 90% of Hennessy’s brandies were less than five years old and over 70% less than two years old. But as production rose, it began to outpace sales by a wide margin. Between 1861 and 1876, 4.5 million hectoliters of Cognac were exported and 11 million hectoliters were produced. Most of the excess was kept by the peasants who were growing the grapes—valuable assets that made them some of the richest peasants in all of France.
Cognac was a ripe target for phylloxera. With 285,000 hectares planted in 1878, Cognac was France’s largest vineyard. First noticed in the Charente in 1872, phylloxera spread rapidly, and by 1885 the region had only 85,000 hectares under vine. By 1893, Cognac was down to only 41,000 hectares. As the vines died, land value dropped by 90%, forcing growers to sell off their stores of old Cognac. When those ran out, many could not afford to replant, so they sold their stills and made wine instead. Production of Cognac plummeted, and it became an extremely scarce luxury good. Both Martell and Hennessy could have used the crisis to become major landholders in the region by purchasing vineyards from distressed peasants, but both opted not to do so. Instead, the two firms responded by using credit from financiers to build up their stocks and purchase brandy from growers, protecting themselves from the challenges others experienced during this period.
The region’s recovery from phylloxera was slower than that of many European regions, as the first generations of American rootstock did not take well to the chalky soils of the Grande Champagne and Petite Champagne regions. Further, Folle Blanche proved to be a poor partner for American rootstocks, its bunches becoming too compact and susceptible to rot. Ugni Blanc, however, performed well and ultimately became the dominant grape in Cognac.
Eventually, Pierre-Marie Millardet at the University of Bordeaux produced a rootstock called 41B, a hybrid of Chasselas and Vitis berlandieri Planchon, which would become the workhorse of the region until the 1970s. To assist with the replanting efforts, France’s first viticultural research station was created in Cognac in 1889.
Meanwhile, merchants in the region had to contend with industrial spirits—distilled from sources like beets, grain, or potatoes—that filled the market and were often marketed as Cognac. A common tactic of French merchants trying to label other spirits as Cognac was to establish an address in Cognac and have their mail forwarded there. In 1889, nearly 180 firms existed for this purpose. Germans would relabel fortified wine as Cognac or even ship industrial alcohol to a French port, then ship it back to Germany and label it as Cognac. By 1900, fraudulent sales of Cognac were 15 times greater than Cognac’s annual production. This fraud led to the 1909 legislation that created AOC Cognac, which, 10 years later, was followed by a law that made it a criminal offense to label as Cognac anything that did not meet legal standards. Merchants, in the meantime, were adding their own guarantees of quality. Hennessy created the star system and, later, the XO designation, while Martell utilized an elaborate system that had eight tiers, including the now familiar VSOP.
Although World War I had little effect on Cognac, import tariffs spread throughout the world and Prohibition wiped out the American market, with the Great Depression soon following. While Martell and Hennessy remained on top, every other firm struggled. It was in this era, in 1924, that Rémy Martin, nearing bankruptcy, was taken over by André Renaud. A legendarily harsh leader, Renaud brought focus to the firm and helped position it to eventually become a member of the big four, the name given to the dominant houses in Cognac: Hennessy, Martell, Rémy Martin, and Courvoisier.