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A Visit to the House of Remy Martin Cognac

In France recently, I had a tour and dinner at the house of Remy Martin in Cognac. They don't allow photography in the cellar, so this post is a little light on the pictures. (Suck it up and read.)

We entered the building at night so it's hard to recall exactly what the house complex looks like, but if memory serves me right the buildings (almost a campus) was a combination of old and new architecture, the traditional tan stone buildings integrated with new glass-heavy buildings. We did a walk through of the distilling demonstration and aging cellars, then headed upstairs for a meal.  

Remy's products are made from grapes grown in either the Grande Champagne or Petite Champagne regions. The VS product is 100% Petite Champagne,the higher end products are 100% Grande Champagne, and everything in the middle is a blend of the two regions. (The above picture is the blending room, by the way.)

A blend of at least 51% Grande Champagne and the rest Petite Champagne may be labeled as "Fine Champagne" on the bottle, and most of Remy's bottles are. As can be seen on the descriptions of the range here, each successive bottling labeled as Fine Champagne has a higher percentage of Grand Champagne than the last.

The real surprise of the night was the pre-dinner lounge with passed fish appetizers and the new Remy Ice Boxx. When the cognac (We had the VSOP- not sure if the VS is standard) was chilled to -18C in these machines it was surprisingly flavorful and nutty and not at all what I expected.

Cognac as the new Jager? I can't wait to see how this turns out.

New Books from Mixellany

The folks at Mixellany (Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller) have released two books:

A French book of American and British Cocktails

Mixellany's Annotated BARIANA: A Practical Compendium of All American and British Drinks by Louis Fouquet, Translated from the Original 1896 French Edition and Annotated by Charles Vexenat

Originally published in 1896, Bariana: Recueil pratique de toutes boissons Americaines et Anglaises by Louis Fouquet is regarded as the second French cocktail book ever published. But there is no question that Bariana is the first heralded French cocktail book: Unveiled in the 1898 edition of the popular Almanach Hachette encyclopaedia, a handful of Fouquet's recipes were published along with the comment that "Thanks to Mr. Louis Fouquet, the skiilful barman from the Criterion (121 r. St-Lazare) American and English beverages can now be prepared by everyone as easily as combining anisette and water."

This book is released October 3rd.

An international history of booze

Spirituous Journey: A History of Drink, Book One, by Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller

This initial volume opens with the surprising discovery that ancient Arabic term "al kol" had two appropriate definitions long before Europeans learnt to distill alcohol: "1: a genie or spirit that takes on varied shapes (a supernatural creature in Arab mythology). 2: Any drug or substance that takes away the mind or covers it." From there, the authors trace the birth of spirits from China, to India, to Persia, through Europe and on to the New World.

What did people do with these potent potables long before the Cocktail was ever heard of? Miller and Brown explore the centuries-old origins of classic mixed drinks. Spirits and the drinks made with them have close ties to some of civilisation's landmark periods including the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Mongol, and Persian Empires as well as major historical events including the Crusades, Little Ice Age, The Black Death, the American Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution.

You can purchase the books at the Mixellany shop here or on Amazon.com here

Cognac Tesseron Visit

While in France recently I visited the cognac house of Tesseron. This brand is notable for having probably the second largest collection of old cognacs in demijohns in all of Cognac. 

Cognac can only age for so long in barrel before the spirit becomes flabby and loses its aromatic qualities. For cognac made from grapes grown in the Grande Champagne (the growing area producing grapes that age the longest), most cognac caps out at no more than 75 years in wood, though there are exceptions. After that point, the spirit is transferred to glass demijohns- round bottles about the size of a water cooler refill. These are stored in what is called the Paradis cellar at each house, and a visit to the paradis is a part of every cognac house tour.

The cellars at Tesseron date back to the 13th century and were once part of a crypt of the local church. We visited two cellars and saw rows and rows of cognacs dating to the 1860's- and were lucky enough to be able to sample some. This time is just as Phylloxera came to the region, destroying nearly all the vines in Cognac. These old grape vines were of a different variety than the Ugni Blanc planted today, so being able to taste them is quite special.  

Like many brands, Tesseron has a long history of selling its unaged and aged eau de vie to the big houses, but then decided to sell some under its own name. The brand Tesseron was launched in 2003 and releases only products XO and above in age- no VS or VSOP. 

Tesseron has several releases that would be vintage-dated but this is not legal in cognac unless the dates can be absolutely proven. (More on this in a future post.) Brands like Tesseron try to get around this by not labeling the bottles but letting people know what's in it. They label their bottles "Lot 90" "Lot 76" and so on, to imply the date of the cognac, but I did not verify with the brand that everything in the bottle comes from the year of the "lot" on the label and older.

Tesseron also sells cognac in 1.75 Liter bottles, which is fun. They have both the "lot" line and these sexy round "Extreme" line bottles shaped like a round demijohn.  I think the black one would look particularly good in my apartment. (It's the holiday season coming up, I'm just sayin'.)

Sponsored Post: WhiskyFest Discounts

September 30th is the last day for the earlybird discount on WhiskyFest San Francisco, which takes place on October 16th. Still too early to commit? I found a couple other ways to get a discount. I received emails from both Friends of Laphroaig and Classic Malts (Diageo's single malt portfolio) offering ten bucks off a ticket with a special coupon code. Maybe if you sign up now they'll still send you that email...

Additionally, you may consider signing up for the first hour of tasting, the VIP hour. During that hour you not only get to sample the whisky with less of a crowd, there are special whiskies poured only during that hour, such as Ardbeg Supernova, Glenfarclas 1968, and Highland Park 30 year old. Check out the list of all whiskies and the extra ones during VIP hour here. VIP tickets cost $40 more than regular tickets.

DVD Review: Beer Wars

I received a copy of the new documentary Beer Wars, released this week. I found it to be both interesting and annoying.

The story is about the big brewers versus small ones and how hard it is in the current system to launch a small brand. It was interesting to learn how both shelf space and distribution are controlled by major brands, how they'll release "category killer" products just to knock out the competition from upstarts, and how much money is spent lobbying congress.

The big flaw with the film in my opinion is that director/writer/producer Anat Baron chose to focus on two upstart brands to follow as they faced challenges. One was DogFish Head Craft Brewery from Delaware- what you'd think of as a small brewer you'd want to succeed. The other is New Century Brewing Co, who are releasing a caffeinated beer. It's hard to feel bad for this brand's founder as she faces challenges and tries to sell out to the bigger companies when they run out of money.

There is also a theme about the American Dream running through the film as the small guys try to compete, countered by Nazi-sounding war marching music when they'd show footage of the large brands. Tacky.

Director Baron doesn't seem to care about the difference between craft products that consumers may want to succeed and small entrepreneurs trying to make a fast buck, but then again she was once the General Manager of Mike's Hard Lemonade, which she calls a beer.

So yes, this DVD has many interesting facts about the beer industry in America and I think is definitely worth watching. I just found it hard in the end to sympathize with Baron about the big bad beer brands when I didn't care if half the featured small ones failed.  

Cognac Visit: Bache Gabrielsen

While in the Cognac region of France, I stopped in to cognac house Bache Gabrielsen for a visit. I was greeted by fourth-generation family member Herve Bache-Gabrielsen and taken to their tasting room around a wooden table in the upstairs office.

Bache Gabrielsen is located on a small, nondescript street in Cognac. There are few signs to identify that the street holds buildings for blending, aging, bottling, and other storage. The company owns other warehouses as well (it's not safe or legal to hold too much cognac within the city- fire would be a very bad thing) but the white buildings on a narrow side street give no clue as to their rather large storage capacity indoors. 

The brand is Norwegian though they've been in Cognac for 100 years, and still their largest markets are Norway and other Scandinavian countries. It turns out that Norway consumes the most cognac per person in the world. Who knew?  

Herve also said that there is currently a glut of sorts of aging barrels due to a past overproduction of cognac and a previous economic collapse. Thus there is a lot of 20+ year old cognac sitting around in barrels that producers are using in their XO products. Eventually though this glut will dry up and he predicts it may be hard for some producers to maintain a consistent flavor profile in their products when there is less older eau de vie around to go into them.

Smaller brands like Bache Gabrielsen have both problems and opportunities in the market. They can release small batch products without the overhead and marketing support of larger brands, but on the other hand they are selling so much less it may be hard to educate consumers on what they're drinking.

Bache Gabrielsen has two cognac lines that they call Classic and Pure and Rustic. The Classic line, like most all cognacs, has caramel added for color consistency and sugar to soften the spirit, but the Pure and Rustic line (that is called "Natur and Eleganse" in the US) has neither. I found it definitely had a stronger alcohol attack on the tongue and was a more 'raw' tasting spirit, but not in a bad way- more like rye whiskey as opposed to bourbon. (I wonder if it might mix better in cocktails than most cognac.) I thought the XO was a particularly good balance between alcohol sharpness and wood softness.

All in all, it was great to see this small house hidden on a narrow street within the city limits, doing something new in old Cognac.

Tequila and Fernet, Together at Last

I haven't had the Manana Despues yet, but I fully support it in theory. It's a version of the Fernet Branca Cocktail from the Savoy Cocktail Book, using blanco tequila instead of gin.

Jay from Oh Gosh! has the recipe video with Tiffany Short of The Gibson here. Yes she pronounces Fernet incorrectly, but to be fair I wasn't sure we were saying it right in San Francisco until Count Branca came to town and confirmed it.

A Trove of Tasty Cachaca Recipes

Cuca Fresca cachaca (Brazilian rum from raw fermented sugarcane instead of molasses) is having a cocktail contest for which they want you to vote for your favorite drink. There are too many tasty looking ones from which to choose. Check them out here.

Chicago's Todd Appel has a carrot juice drink, and I'm all about carrot drinks- in theory anyway.

There is also a strawberry shrub on the list- and that means Vinegarwatch Continues!

A Day at Hennessy

The first stop on a big trip to Cognac, France last week was Hennessy. I met up with my host Cyrille at the Hennessy office, one of the Hennessy buildings that dominates the waterfront on the Charente River in the small city of Cognac. 

First we talked a bit about sales. Hennessy sells the most of their youngest expression, the VS, totaling something like 80 percent of sales volume, and most of that is to the US. The US generally consumes most congnac at the VS level, whereas in Asian markets consumers in particular tend to drink VSOP and older expressions.

Next we headed to the vineyards and distillery. Hennessy owns several hectares of vineyard along with some distilleries and even forests, but these don't make up very much of their total production. These facilities are partially for testing and experimentation.

As with most cognac houses, Hennessy buys most of their eau de vie on the open market or through winegrowers with whom they have contracts. They avoid buying from the Bois Ordinaires and Bon Bois regions, concentrating on the four innermost growing regions for their purchases even in their VS and VSOP blends. Hennessy uses the typical Ugni Blanc and Folle Blanche grapes, and is encouraging their growers to look into Folignan as well.

All in all, the Cognac region has 70,000 hectares of vines on about 6000 properties (6000 winegrowers) and Hennessy alone deals with about 2000 growers. There are about 120 professional distillers in cognac, which prepare the eau de vie for the 150 cognac houses.

Hennessy doesn't own a barrel building cooperage, but instead one for barrel repair. That was our next stop. As barrels are always stored on their side with the bung hole facing up, even non-perfect staves can still be used for the bung stave. As is also common, Hennessy uses several sizes of barrels, larger ones for older cognacs as they have a smaller cognac-to-wood ratio. 

We traveled next back into town and across the Charente river by boat from the main Hennessy building are some of the aging warehouses. There they age eau de vie in batches labeled with the distillery or vineyard and the year. As the eau de vie evaporates out of casks, young ones destined for VS are topped up with water, while older ones are topped up with the liquid from one sacrificial barrel from the same batch.

I then tasted through the line, along with some new-make spirit and some older unblended eau de vie. I learned that some eau de vies are identified right off the still as special and are not put into new barrels to add structure as they already have it, but are moved right to used ones for long aging. Thus at the point of distillation, much of the eau de vie is being selected as to whether it will sit in a barrel for two or twenty years.

Hennessy is located in Cognac and is open for daily tours most of the year, or one can just visit the gift shop downstairs and the display of advertising from the last 100 years upstairs.

All About Cognac

I went to Cognac last week to learn about cognac. I learned a lot.

So what is cognac, anyway?

Cognac is an aged brandy distilled from grapes in the Charente region of France.

The Cognac region is separated into six delimited subregions based primarily on the makeup of the soil: Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies, Fine Bois, Bons Bois, and Bois Ordinaires. The Grande and Petite Champagne regions have the most chalky soil. 

Planted in the region is mostly Ugni Blanc grapes, with others like Folle Blanche and Columbard sometimes also used to make cognac. These grape varieties make horrible table wine, but are good for distillation. They are high in acid and low in alcohol content at harvest. The flavors in this largely neutral grape are concentrated through distillation and are teased out over aging in oak barrels.

Grapes grown in the Grande and Petite Champagne region are able to age a long time, while those from the outer regions need less time in wood to show their full and fruity potential. Thus many brands reserve their Grande and Petite Champagne-produced barrels for their longer-aged blends. 

First the grapes must be harvested in the fall, then fermented into wine and distilled. Most harvesting is mechanical. Fermentation is started with yeast recommended by the government. Distillation runs through the winter and must legally be finished by the end of March, though most are finished far sooner. Cognac must be twice distilled in pot stills limited in size to 25 hectoliters in usable volume.

Most cognac is aged in oak from the French Limousin or Troncais forests, and purchased from the government-run forest agency. Most of the trees used for barrels are 100 years old. French oak is high in tannins that help spirits age longer and add structure to the mouthfeel of the finished product.

The aging process is not as static as you might think. First, newly made spirit is added to newish (up to 3-5 years old) barrels as these contain the most tannins. Depending on the cognac house and the previous number of uses of the barrel, the spirit may sit in new barrels for just a couple months to more than a year. Then the spirit is moved to old barrels where the tannins in the wood have less effect, but the porousness of wood allows continued interaction with the outside world via oxidation and evaporation. 

Most all cognac is a blend of aged spirit (eau de vie) from many vineyards and many different vintages. It is the master blender's job to ensure consistency of a blended cognac product despite a big variation in the individual eau de vies that go into it.

Cognac labeled VS must be a minimum of 2 years, VSOP has a 4 year minimum, and Napoleon and XO have a six year minimum though this is being raised to 10 years for XO in 2016 (most XO's on the market are already older than ten years and won't have to change). Cognacs may be single vintage bottlings (all eau de vie comes from a single year) and labeled on the bottle. They may not say an average or minimum age on the bottle (example: "ten years old") as they can with scotch whisky.

Older blends are not just further aged versions of younger blends- they are usually separate products. For example, a brand may compose their VS product primarily of eau de vie from the Fine Bois, while for their XO products most will come from Grande Champagne. 

Cognac production is rather interesting, in that most cognac houses are only blending and aging houses. They do not traditionally own their own vineyards or their own distilleries, and they don't even need to own the aging facilities. (In reality the brands I visited owned some vineyards and distilleries but nothing close to the amount for their full production. It seems most all houses age most of their own eau de vie rather than buy it already aged.)

The "big four" cognac houses that make up around 75-80% of the world market are Hennessy, Martell, Courvoisier, and Remy Martin. There are many smaller houses, of course, and some of these own vineyards and distill, age, and blend on-site.

In future blog posts, I'll talk about some brand specifics.

Back from Cognac

What a week! I've just come back from the Cognac region visiting nine cognac houses in several towns, one big cooperage and one tiny one, a big charity auction, and enduring a long flight next to a man with extremely broad shoulders. YOUR SEAT STOPS AT THE ARMREST, PAL.

More to come as I work through the jetlag.

Aromatic Pisco

Jordan Mackay has a nice explanation of the aromatics in different varieties of pisco on CHOW.com. Read it here.

Bonjour from France

Unless something has gone horribly awry, by the time you read this I will be in France. Where in France? Well, here is my reading list for the plane ride:

 

I'll be here for about a week, but I have a few advance-written blog posts going up. The schedule looks pretty packed so I don't think I'll be able to do much live blogging on site.

A votre sante!

Sponsored Post: One Month to WhiskyFest SF

Well hello! I'm pleased to announce that Malt Advocate's WhiskyFest has become an Alcademics sponsor. The San Francisco WhiskyFest event is October 16, so start planning your outfit.

See that little ad banner over there? It does have an important piece of information, that until Sept 25th the ticket price is lower than after that date. 

There will be events in San Francisco all week and I'll do my best to post them here. Already I know of a Laphroaig cocktail contest at Rye on October 12th, a whisky dinner with High West at The Alembic that's already sold out, and plans for a week's worth of tastings at Elixir. Rest your liver, it's going to be a good week.

I'll also be giving away a pair of tickets to the event, but more on that later. Sign up for Alcademics A-Plus to make sure you hear about it.

Peru's the News

Too busy to blog- read these Peruvian booze news stories instead:

- Another good pisco story this week, this one by Jason Wilson in the Washington Post.

- The New York Times has a funny story on an attempt to make chicha, the Peruvian beer that is chewed and spit.