Distilled

Brand Awareness

The smooth elegance of Cognac is born from a wine no one wants to drink
By Dan Dunn

You wouldn't want to drink the bitter, acidic white wine they make in the Charente region of France, but it's nonetheless the foundation of the world's most popular brandy, Cognac. By law, in order to be called Cognac the brandy wine must be made from ugni blanc grapes sourced from one of six contiguous growing areas - or crus - surrounding the Charente River. The most desirable of these crus are the Grande Champagne, Petit Champagne and Borderies. If you're befuddled, you're not alone. These people are making a wine no one wants to drink, distilling it and calling the best of it Champagne, even though it bears no relation to the bubbly stuff you pop on New Year's Eve. Way to confuse the rest of the world, guys.

Ninety percent of all the Cognac consumed in the world is produced by just four brands: Hennessy, Courvoisier, Rémy Martin and Martell.

Here's a brief look at each:

Hennessy
Founded by Irishman Richard Hennessy in 1765, this French institution today sells more hootch than any other Cognac house. During a recent visit, Hennessy's head honcho, Morris Hennessy, told me something interesting - that Cognac heats up a little when a few drops of room temperature water are added, a result of the water breaking down the links between the molecules in the eaux de vie and causing an exothermic chemical reaction. Feel free to file that bit of information under "Stuff You Can Use to Impress People at a Cocktail Party." For my money, the Hennessy Privilège VSOP is a great deal at around $70 a bottle.

Rémy Martin
This 285-year-old brand prides itself on producing what's known as Fine Champagne. Rémy uses only grapes sourced from the Grande Champagne or Petit Champagne crus, where the chalky soil yields higher quality fruit and a more complex and textured eau de vie. Now, Rémy isn't the only house to make Fine Champagne, but it's certainly churning out the bulk of it. Roughly 15 percent of all Cognac produced is designated Fine Champagne, and 80 percent of that comes courtesy of Rémy. Rémy's most prestigious bottling is its Louis XIII, made from a blend of eaux de vie dating back more than 100 years. If you have to ask what it costs, you can't afford it.

Martell
Martell has been around since 1715, and is the key ingredient in my most-favourite Cognac-based libation - an East India Cocktail. The recipe, which can be found in Dale "King Cocktail" DeGroff's latest tome, The Essential Cocktail, calls for 1 1/2 ounces Martell VSOP, 1 ounce orange Curaçao, 1 1/2 ounces fresh pineapple juice, a dash of Angostura bitters, a flamed orange peel for garnish and grated nutmeg. Shake and strain.

Courvoisier
Courvoisier is the sole Cognac brand to be awarded France's highest honour for excellence - the Prestige de la France. That means it is Grade-A certifiably good grog. Of course, if you drink their lower-end offerings you run the risk of coming off like Tim Meadows' Ladies Man character, so proceed with caution, and don't buy below the Exclusif, which goes for about $50.