The Town of Cognac, Where Even Time Ages Well

We Americans have influenced the life style of the 23,000 people who live in the town of Cognac. Because we have made Cognac a status drink, something has happened here that has not happened with the rest of France’s or Europe’s liquor industry. Last year, Cognac sales to the United States rose 36%.

Since 1976 this most expensive of the world’s brandies has tripled its exports to the United States, the world’s largest importer of Cognac at more than 20% of worldwide consumption.

But you’d never realize the commercial importance of Cognac as you explore the source of the product. The only brandy that can legally be called Cognac comes from 235,000 acres around the town of Cognac in southwestern France.

Time Passes--Gently

It is a magnificently beautiful and verdant village--uncrowded, calm, peaceful, even a bit slow. So slow in fact that the people jokingly call themselves cagouillards , snail people, because they’re as slow-moving as their famous and delicious snails.

If you drive through the area, stop and ask for directions at your own risk. The story goes that a tourist from the north on his way to Bourdeaux stopped to ask a farmer for directions. It was getting late and he wanted to be in Bourdeaux by dinner time. The farmer ignored his question and began asking a few of his own. “Are they your children? How grand of you to bring them with you. May I talk to them? I love children.” And on and on.

Finally the tourist got impatient and said, “I am sorry, but we must be in Bourdeaux in time for dinner.” The farmer laughed. “Here in the Charentes (the two counties) there is always time. Have dinner with us. You have the time.”

The people of the Cognac area, called Charentais, often use that phrase: “You have the time.” It is not that they waste time. Far from it. They respect time and use it well. Time is the major ingredient of their lives and livelihood.

In Tune With Nature

The soil, the raising of the grapes, the aging of the Cognac, all have as the important process the passing of time. And this time seems to have softened the people, putting them in harmony with nature, another employer of time to do its work. It also gives them the time to be friendly, warm and generous.

In the departments (counties) of Charente and Charente-Maritime the Charente River flows toward the Atlantic Ocean. The Cognac area is divided into six growing zones, selected according to the composition of the soil (in some areas the hard, white chalky lime is only a few inches below the black topsoil), the climate and the quality of the wine produced from the grapes grown in that zone. The core or heart zone is the Grand Champagne (“champagne” means field) and the next is the Petite Champagne .

What’s in the Name

The words “Fine Champagne” on a Cognac bottle do not mean it is a fine Champagne. This is the name given only to the blend of the two best growths (at least 50% Grande Champagne, the rest Petite Champagne only).

If it has the words “Grand Champagne” or “Grand Fine Champagne” on the bottle, the Cognac comes solely from the Grand Champagne area; if labeled “Petite Fine Champagne,” it comes from the Petite Champagne area. The other four growing zones are Borderies, Fins Bois, Bon Bois and Bois’ Ordinaires .

Cognac is made in onion-shaped potstills, or vats, called alambics .They were brought to France more than four centuries ago by the Moors and were first used by alchemists trying to turn non-precious metals into gold; later they helped make perfume.

Twice Distilled

Using the Saint Emilion, Folle Blanche and Colombard grapes of the region, the brandy is distilled twice, unlike any other brandy in the world. Then it’s aged in wooden barrels made by hand by a process handed down from father to son since the 16th Century. The special kind of oak in the region from the surrounding Limousin and Troncais forests gives color and taste properties to the aging Cognac that brandy makers in other parts of the world haven’t duplicated.

The English and Dutch were among the first to import Cognac from this area a few centuries ago, when sailors of ships sent to bring back salt from the French coastal islands discovered the drink. In England, one has the image of gentlemen retiring to the drawing room after dinner, lighting big cigars and enjoying their Cognac as they talked.

But particularly in the United States we have invented a variety of ways to enjoy Cognac. Sometimes even in cocktails, although some traditional purists prefer the finer, older Cognacs unmixed.

Designating the Aging

A label having the designation V.S. (historically, three stars) means that the average aging period of the Cognac before it was bottled was five to nine years. A label with V.S.O.P. (Very Superior Old Pale) or Reserve means that the average aging to create the blend was 12 to 20 years. The letters and words X.O., Napoleon, V.V.S.O.P., Vielle Reserve, Grand Reserve, Royal and Vieux refer to Cognacs that are even older, and therefore include a high percentage of Cognacs that have been aged 20, 30, 40 years or more.

Uncommon Common Food

Here in the Charentes you cannot find the effete fantasies of haute cuisine . It’s an area where you delight in the honest taste of fresh fish and fowl prepared in the region’s traditional style.

The striped Charente melon comes sprinkled with pineau (the local wine fortified with Cognac). Another delight is bourride , a fish stew that is the Charente’s answer to bouillabaisse. Chabichou , goat’s cheese, is a regional specialty, often made into a fragrant tart. Desserts include leek pie, cherry clafouti or fresh-fruit sorbets.

There are no big chain or private hotels in the area. The small hotels and inns are modest and simple, with one outstanding exception. Logis de Beaulieu is an inn on the outskirts of pretty Cognac, on a hill overlooking magnificent vineyard scenery that seems to stretch forever. It is a three-star inn run by Madame Danielle Biancheri and her family with great skill and pride.

It has only 21 rooms, ranging from $12 to $40 a night, charmingly furnished in the elegant turn-of-the-century French country style. All rooms have good views because the inn is in the heart of vineyard country and there are no buildings to block the view.

This inn’s dining room is the best restaurant in the Cognac area, except perhaps for some of the private dining rooms in the palaces and mansions owned by some of the famous Cognac producers.

Hennessy Headquarters

In the Cognac area the favorite pastime of first-time visitors is seeing some of the Cognac establishments. One of those best set up to entertain visitors is the Hennessy headquarters by the Charente River. Here an excellent museum is included in a tour--which is free. The tour takes you in a boat across the river to the black-roofed above-ground storage cellars where the Cognac is aged in barrels.

Other things to do include driving through the vineyards (in the fall, watching the harvest of the grapes, either by hand or by machine), visiting a cooperage where the art of making barrels continues (fascinating), having lunch in a “farmhouse” (chateau) on a grape farm. You may visit the nearby village of Saintes with its shops and Roman ruins, take a short cruise on the Charente River on a barge where you may have lunch and/or dinner (or even a week’s cruise with five or six other passengers). Or if you want to take the hour’s ride, you may visit Bourdeaux, or perhaps go to the porcelain center of France in Limoges.

Madame Biancheri will be glad to help you with any arrangements for any trip for a few hours to a few days.

To get to Cognac, take the train from Gare Austerlitz in Paris to Angouleme near Cognac; round-trip fare is about $88. You may get a reserved seat in this first-class car for an additional $4. For a few dollars, when you arrive in Angouleme, a taxi will take you directly to Logis de Beaulieu.

Charente residents claim their longevity is due to breathing the fumes of the aging Cognac wafting through the oak walls of the storage barrels and out of the buildings full of barrels in Cognac and nearby towns.

Come to Cognac. You have the time.