Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is Monday again, a special Monday: the MxMonday! And this time Marleigh from Sloshed has the honor, to host the 23rd edition of this prestigious event...

The topic is brandy, and this is a great one, well done Marleigh!

I am choosing the most popular and distinguished product, which is underlying the brandy category: Cognac.

Cognac is made in the Charente region in France. There are only three different white grape varieties which are allowed: Ugni blanc (this is the important one, as 98% of the whole cognac production is made with this grape), Folle blanche and Colombard.

GROWING REGIONS

More important and interesting than the grapes, are the regions, they are coming from! In the charente there are six different subregions, Cognac may come from:

1. •La Grande Champagne
   

2. •La Petite Champagne
   

3. •Les Borderies
   

4. •Les Fins Bois
   

5. •Les Bons Bois
   

6. •Les Bois Ordinaire
   

Usually the cognac producer are considering the grande champagne and the petite champagne as preferred growing regions, with the eaux de vies with the best maturation potential. The bons bois and bois ordinaire regions are considered as the origins with the lowest potential.

DISTILLING

Cognac has to be distilled in quite small alembic stills, which are working like a pot still with a device which is preheating the must, before distillation.

One unique aspect is, that the eaux de vies are usually not distilled by the cognac producer, but by the winegrowers, which normally have contracts with the producer, which is determining the specific methods and processes.

The eau de vie is also always distilled on the lees. That means that the sediments (mostly of yeast) of the wine fermentation are not filtered before distillation.

I found a great website (www.copper-alembic.com) with methodical steps of the alembic distillation; click on the picture and you are right at the flash animation!

AGING

Like other quality spirits, cognac producers are exceeding dramatically the aging requirements! As this is a fact, I do not list the minimum ages by age certification.

The usual certifications are following (listed quality increasing order): VS (Very Special), VSOP (Very Superior Old Pale), XO (eXtra Old), Napoleon/Extra.

Cognac has to be matured in Limousin or Troncaise oak barrels. They have to be new or used already before, but exclusive for cognac only. If the eaux de vies reached their peak age, they are transferred to glass containers, to prevent an over-maturation.

Cognac barrels are blended consistently; this is not really known, but in my opinion one of the genuine points of this product! Old products containing sometimes more than 1000 different eaux de vies (that means 1000 different barrels!) and the oldest parts of eaux de vies are sometimes up to 200 years old (though not in your usual VSOP, dude)!

HOW TO DRINK

You needed great patience to come to this point - I didn’t made it that easy! But this is mixology monday, so it is not only about the interesting factoids of a spirit, but also about drinking it!

Fact is, that the big volumed snifters are hopelessly outdated! The short stem is misguiding to hold the glass in the palm of the hand, which warms up the content of the glass.
However body temperature is not good for good cognac, as the compounds which are giving you the distinctive “rancio” aroma are changing with rising temperatures to soapy aromas! Also the hole of the glass is much too big and the shape is wrong, as supporting the chimney effect, which is bringing all the facets to your nose!

Long story short: use them! Like all fine spirits, you can never be wrong with a long stemmed nosing (tulip) glass!

There is also nothing wrong, to savor young cognac with ice - I mean why not? If you are enjoying a good blended Scotch which is 12 years old(or older) on the rocks, why not drinking a brandy, which is barely half of the age like that? This is surely not traditional, but belief me, you can enjoy!

You can drink it in some exciting cocktails:

1. •Cognac Sazerac (I would recommend a XO quality or at least a VSOP and of course a decent artisan Absinthe)
   

2. •A Cognac Old Fashioned (or should we call it French Old Fashioned?) - a nice point is to substitute the sugar with reduced white grape juice (boil 1l carefully so long, until you have only max 10 cl left).
   

3. •A Sidecar (I prefer mine sugar rimmed! C’mon it is so seldom, that a drink is benefitting of an sugar rim)
   

4. •A Cognac Sour
   

5. •A Georgia Mint Julep (cognac & apricot brandy)
   

6. •A Brandy Alexander (I would recommend a VSOP quality - VS is too light on earthy flavors and do not hold up with Creme de Cacao and heavy cream - XO would be a waste).
   

7. •I am NOT a fan of the Stinger... but why not?
   

8. •Or unusual drinks like a VS cognac with ginger ale
   

What is could be even more exciting than cocktails, are pairings with cognac! Incidentally cognac pairs fantastic to truffles, and I can think of foie gras with cognac as well; chai tea is a great combination, which I found out, or chocolate, or dried fruits and so on!

And we didn’t talked yet about cigars...

Very often I heard that cognac is somehow outdated and that the consumer are more and more neglecting it in favor for other spirits.

I think on one hand, it will lose even more market share in the lower spirit categories, in the luxury category it will maintain increase its share! And at the end it is the bartenders call, to use a fantastic product as cognac for their latest concoctions.