Grand Champagne Cognac
The map of the Appellation controle region for Cognac production is somewhat like a series of concentric rings with the finest area the Premier Cru Grande Champagne at its centre. This just includes the town of Cognac itself and the valley of the river Charente at the northern end. The word “Champagne”, by the way, is just countryside (or “campagne”) in old French and refers to the chalky hills which suit the vines so well. Just as the same terrain does for those chaps in the north around Epernay who reckon they own the word!
The spirit derived from the grapes grown in our region, the Grande Champagne, is distilled using the lees from the wine and this has great longevity and ageing properties which are not found from the product from lesser regions surrounding us. So the cellarmasters in the big Cognac houses will always use some Grande Champagne in their blends for the finest and oldest Cognacs. We enjoy presenting our guests to some small family producers in the region who of course have a little private stock which can be released to friends and neighbours like ourselves. Some of these Cognacs are at least 50 years old...
Finally the Grande Champagne is a spectacularly pretty (and very unspoilt) area as I hope some of our photographs will indicate.
Click on the thumbnails below to view larger photos
