Cognac: Only The Nose Knows
By Barney
Lehrer and Jesse Nash
Cognac smells.
Yes, it's true. But it's not exactly a bad thing. In
fact, when it comes to cognac, "smelling" is
crucial. And it is the key to the magic of the
beverage.
Revered the
world over as an elegant and expensive end to a
gastronomic meal. Sipped from expensive crystal.
Drunk while smoking $200 Havanas. The Queen’s
favorite tipple. How many people know that this
drink originates in dank, moldy cellars with black
fungus on the ceilings, draped with spider webs and
thick with the smells of centuries of evaporated
alcohol mixed with stone, chalk and gravel? Welcome
to the world of cognac! How does this happen?
How does the world’s most elegant (and in,
some cases, the most expensive) drink
originate in such humble or, some might say, squalid
circumstances? It all has to do with noses. The noses
of winemakers, distillers and, most importantly,
“maîtres de chai” (cellar masters). The winemaker
grows the grapes and makes the wine; the distiller
(usually the same person as the winemaker) takes the
new wine and distills it into eau de vie; and the
maître de chai decides which eau de vie, very often
made by many different distillers, is, first of all,
used for aging and, second of all, blended into the
final product. And each of these guys
(or gals)
relies on his/her nose to make the
right decisions.
'Devilish' Way To Make It
How and why is
this? First of all the wine: Most of the wine used
to make cognac is made from the ugni blanc (tebbiano)
grape. It is a highly acidic, low alcohol (9%) white
wine. The wine made from the grape produces an
“eau-de-vie” (pure spirit or "water of life")
that can be both fruity and floral, depending on the
exact area (or “terroir,” as the French call it)
where the grapes are grown. The area considered to
produce the highest quality wine for cognac is
called “Grande Champagne” (the word champagne having
its roots in the old French word for chalk because
of the high chalk content of the soil). Wines made
in Grande Champagne tend to produce light Cognacs
with a predominantly floral bouquet. Wines made from
the other areas tend to turn into cognac that has
more fruit in its aromas. A good wine from a good
winemaker in a good year is essential for a truly
great cognac -- but creating the wine is just the
beginning of a very long process.
The next step
in making cognac is distillation. Cognac was
invented in the 16th century, when Dutch and British
traders were importing salt and wine from the
Charente river region, in which Cognac is the
largest town. Demand for the wine was so great that
winemakers increased production to the point where
the quality deteriorated, and by the time it reached
its markets after weeks at sea, the wine was
spoiled. To solve this problem they distilled or
“burned” it into what they called “brandwijn” –
burnt wine – hence the name “Brandy.” The seamen
found it to be an excellent substitute for the
rancid water aboard ship. And what was left at the
destination ports in northern Europe and England was
diluted with water in an attempt to recreate the
original wine.
The winemakers in the Cognac area decided that this
kind of wine needed some further refinement. So they
came up with a new distillation process called
double distillation. According to legend, double
distillation was invented by the Chevalier Jacques
de la Croix de Segonzac Maron, a very pious man born
around 1558, who was an army captain during various
religious civil wars in the Charente area. After
retiring from military service he became a
winemaker. One night he had a dream that Satan was
trying to take his soul. In the dream, Satan threw
him into a “cauldron of evil” but his faith was so
strong that his soul survived a first "cooking. "So
Satan had to do a second "firing" — and at that
point the Chevalier woke up. Always brooding about
ways to improve his wines, the Chevalier thought his
dream was a message from God that he should apply
this system to Charente wine. The process, now known
as Charentais distilling and by law the only method
of producing cognac, yields a fragrant but complex
eau-de-vie that the distiller, following his nose
and know-how, creates by separating
the “heads”
(first condensate), “tails” (last condensate) and
the “heart, a highly alcoholic (68 to 72%) clear
eau-de-vie that will become cognac."
A History of
Smelling
The “master
smeller” and person most responsible for creating
great cognac is the maître de chai. He is the person
who selects the new eau-de-vie from both the house’s
own production (if they produce any) and the
production of some of the thousands of distillers in
the region. He is the person who keeps track of the
cognac that is aging in the barrels in the cellar,
many of which have been there for 70+ years. He is
the main person who chooses which cognacs, from
which vintages, should be blended each year in order
to produce products that keep the high quality and
house’s style consistent over the decades.
Jean-Philippe Bergier, the maître de chai at cognac
house
Bache-Gabrielsen is what we might call a “nose
professor.” Born into a family of generations of
maîtres de chai, he is at once a master smeller, a
master organizer and a master professor. And
perhaps even more: like many maîtres de chai, he
considers himself to be like an orchestra conductor,
who has to blend the smells of different
“instruments" into a harmonious product.
Jean-Philippe looks like a history professor. He can
spend hours lecturing about the particular smells of
an eau-de-vie that he just got from a distiller.
More importantly he can patiently and painstakingly
explain the process of selecting and then blending
the aged cognacs which will make up one of the many
blends made by the house.
Delamain is one of the oldest cognac houses and one
of the few that are still owned and run by its
founding family. The Delamain house is, according to
Kyle Jarrard, Senior Editor of the International
Herald Tribune
and author of Cognac,
The Seductive Saga of the World’s Most Coveted
Spirit, “the World’s Best Cognac.” And indeed you
are certain to find their products on the menus of
most of the top restaurants in the world. The key to
the quality at Delemain is that little has changed
in production since the company was founded in 1824
by Irish immigrant James Delamain. The eau-de-vie
only comes from the rande Champagne area. And the
cognac itself is aged for at least 25 years in old
oak barrels in the firm’s ancient cellars next to
the Charente River in the town
of Jarnac.
Charles
Brastaad-Delamain, the current Managing Director of
the company, explains that smelling is the key to
enjoyment of the drink. Indeed he says, “Nosing is
80% of the pleasure of cognac.” And a tour of the
modest Delamain cellars in the town of Jarnac is in
itself a “voyage for the nose.” Charles points out
the minute one walks into one of its cellars that
each one of them has a different smell. And the
cellars’ smells, together with the smells of the eau
de vie, the old oak, the mold and the humid river
air create the unique
personalities of the Delamain cognacs. Charles sees
the art of blending and aging cognac to be similar
to the skills of a perfume maker. The object is to
create a mix of smells that will entice and seduce.
Chateau Montifaud is a rural family-run operation,
just as it was when it was founded in the mid 19th
century. The Vallet family has been making cognac at
their Chateau de Montifaud since 1866. Six
generations of the family have passed, from father
to son, traditions of winemaking, distilling, aging
and blending aged eau-de-vie. And, unlike most of
their competitors, they still own and control all
steps
of the process.
The Vallets believe strongly in their family
tradition. “When a son joins his father, it is a
precious moment that must be reflected in the
cognac,” says Michel Vallet, the current patriarch,
who is now slowly transferring his experience,
wisdom and, most importantly, olfactory skills to
his 35-year-old son Laurent. Laurent has worked at
Montifaud since 2000. In that year he put aside a
reserve of his vintage as part of the family’s
tradition of keeping some of the cognac distilled by
each generation so that only future generations will
be able to sell it as well as to understand the
tastes and aromas of the family’s products.
Michel and Laurent are the skillful winemakers,
distillers and blenders at Montifaud today. They own
90 hectares in the two top-tier regions, "Petite
Champagne" and "Grande Champagne." The blending
process, however, must involve the whole family. So,
when the time is right, Michel and Laurent invite
Michel’s retired father, Louis, and Michel’s wife,
Catherine, to join the process.Catherine explains:
“The Grande Champagne and Petite Champagne regions
each have distinct characteristics. And, unlike many
other cognac houses, we make separate products from
each. We strive for fine and elegant tastes, but
also make sure we preserve the ‘montant,’ which is
persistence of aromas. Nuances of aromas can be
classified into two groups: The first is fruity and
floral, which produces a smell that is very similar
to the vineyard flower, the lime blossom as well as
shades of pear and apricot aromas. The second is the
‘bouquet,’ which is where we get our powerful full
bodied, complex aromas.”
She adds, “Chateau de Montifaud makes a variety of
younger VS and VSOP grade (10-12 months aging)
cognacs as well as older cognacs such as Napoléon
and XO (minimum 6 years aging). The older ones, she
says, “contain rich aromas that are achieved by
cooking the fruit -- and the result is bouquets of
prunes, nuts, spices, dried fruit and leather.” The
men like to call the Heritage Maurice Vallet, the
house’s top product, the ‘cigar box’ for its
powerful aroma," Catherine adds with a wink and
smile (and, of course, a nod to her nose!)
Unique Storage
Unlike wine cellars, cognac cellars tend to be at or
near ground level and close to the Charente River,
meaning that they are dank and humid and subject to
climatic changes and even floods over the years. A
byproduct of the humidity in all cognac cellars is
fungus. The walls and ceilings are black with the
mold “torula compniacensis,” a fungus created by the
mixture of humidity and the 2-3% alcohol that
evaporates from the cognac barrels each year, which
cognac producers call “The Angel's Share.” It is the
equivalent of more than twenty million bottles per
year that disappear into the atmosphere--a high
price that Cognac producers do not hesitate to pay
in their quest for perfection.
Tax agents in the Cognac region also find the fungus
to be their friend. They fly helicopters through the
region and make a note of all roofs with this
distinct black fungus. They then compare their
finding with the tax records and determine if
anybody is aging cognac and not paying taxes!
In his elegant but dank cellars, Bernard Hine, of
the sixth generation to head the Hine cognac house,
which is the exclusive cognac purveyor to the Queen,
proudly shows the flood marks from various times the
Hine cellars have been inundated. “Each flood
improved our product.” And the Hine house knows
about how cellars influence the taste of cognac.
Each year, a small number of barrels is sent to
Bristol, England, where they age for at least twenty
years. They are known as “Early Landed Cognacs,”
which Hine claims are more adapted to British tastes
due to the familiar smells of the English air.
Mr. Hine, now the senior spirit of the Cognac
region, is proud to show off the firm’s refined and
also vintage cognacs, a trend that he started in the
region. “Our quality comes from the superior Grande
Champagne and Petite Champagne wines and the unique
smells of our ancient cellars.”
How To Drink
Cognac
The word “drink” is too narrow if one really wants
to understand how to fully enjoy the cognac
experience. Perhaps a better term is “savor.” First
of all, one needs the right equipment. Most people
mistakenly believe that a snifter, a glass with a
wide bottom and a relatively narrow top. As Charles
Brastaad-Delamain points out in an excellent
YouTube clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kahTqs61-QA)
, the snifter actually “prevents” the full enjoyment
of cognac. This is because the narrow top forces the
smell of alcohol into the nose, preventing the
drinker from savoring the various floral and fruit
smells. The correct glass to use is a tulip glass,
developed by Riedel glass company of Austria
especially for Hennessy. As the Williams-Sonoma
shops describe them, “The tall, narrow bowl brings
out the delicate bouquet of caramel and perfumed
fruit, while understating the high alcohol content.
The flared rim delivers the flow of liquid to those
areas of the tongue that allow you to appreciate the
harmonious balance of spiced wood and
luscious fruitiness.” And indeed this description
is also a good guide to enjoying cognac. A good
cognac requires 30 – 60 minutes, in a peaceful
environment, best after a good meal. One starts by
looking and appreciating the color of the liquid,
moving it back and forth a bit but not swirling as
you would a glass of wine. Then you smell from the
top of the glass, sensing the delicate floral
scents. After that you move your nose to the bottom
of the opening, where the fruits appear. After
considering this for a few minutes, you take a small
sip, balance it on your tongue before swallowing
very slowly. Charles demonstrates this very well in
his YouTube video.
Enjoy!
Cognac Had
Outside Help
The Norwegians...
Bache-Grabrielsen is a mid-sized cognac house with a
large range of high-quality cognacs. Compared to
many of its competitors, Bach-Gabrielsen is a
relatively new house, founded in 1905 by Norwegian
immigrants. Thomas Bache-Gabrielsen, who had arrived
in Cognac in 1903, fell in love with a French woman
who also happened to be the daughter of an
established winemaker. In 1905 he teamed up with a
fellow Norwegian to buy the French-owned cognac
house, Dupuy, and to this day the Bache-Gabrielsen
brand is the largest-selling cognac in Norway. And,
indeed, Norway is also the largest per capita cognac
consuming nation in the world, with more than 3
million bottles shipped there every year to serve
its four million population. Remarkable for such a
small country. Six other cognac houses -- Larsen,
Braastad, Birkedal-Hartmann, Jenssen, Jon Bertelsen
and Otard -- also all have roots in Norway.
The English
and The Irish....
In the February 1877 edition of the British
publication Popular Science Monthly, “England
consumes by far the greater part of the supply;
English firms practically control the export trade;
and English influence is so potent in Cognac, that
the rural population of the department speak
jocularly of the place as the "little English town
on the river Charente." Indeed the English
controlled most of the export trade from Cognac in
the 18th and 19th centuries, meaning that many
British and Irish (at the time Ireland was a British
colony) settled in Cognac, married French women,
many of whom were daughters of local winemakers and
distillers, and set up trading houses. And three of
the largest companies, Hennessy, Martell and Hine
trace their roots to the British Isles.
Hennessy is the largest cognac manufacturer and
exporter of cognac. Maurice Hennessey, the seventh
generation of the family, born and raised in France,
still considers himself as Irish as his forefather
Richard Hennessy, who founded the firm in 1765 after
fighting for Louis XV against the English for twenty
years. Bernard Hine, the dean of the cognac industry
and still involved in the Hine cognac house is the
sixth generation involved in the family business.
Although also born and raised in France, Mr. Hine
still very much keeps up English traditions dating
back to his ancestor, Thomas Hine, who arrived from
England and started the business in the 1790s.
Indeed the Hine house every year ships a portion of
its young cognacs to Bristol where it is aged and
eventually bottled. And Hine to this day is the
official Purveyor of cognac to Her Majesty the
queen! Among other English and Irish cognac houses
with English and Irish roots are Delamain (Ireland),
Otard (roots in both Ireland and Norway) and Hardy
(England) .
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