Every cognac is brandy but not every brandy is cognac!
This rule makes for a lot of low quality brandies out there. In addition, it gives a bad name to cognac when one is reminded that cognac in fact is a brandy.
A brandy! Who wants a brandy!
Well not all brandy are the same and in fact there are some wonderful brandy available in the USA and even better some of them are 'Made in the USA' and are noteworthy.
I am thinking of Germain Robin for instance. I love the background story, which I do not know if this is true but I like it, it makes for a good sales pitch.
Legend has it that Hubert Germain-Robin, the grand-son of the last owner of Cognac Jules Robin, was disappointed that his family sold away the cognac company back in the days and that he undertook a long travel in the USA. Once in California, he coincidentally met in 1981 with Ansley Coale, owner of Coale’s Mendocino County ranch. They had a long discussion on cognac and mentioned the idea of having a distillery in California one day, perhaps together.
And they did. One year after they met they build together a distillery on the ranch in Ukiah, CA. Hubert brought back from France some old pot stills and he started using them experimenting with the local grape varietals as well as ugni blanc varietal which are the common grape used in cognac.
- Brandy Germain-Robin
In fact, this was very innovative at the time and with time their brandies became famous.
Other companies in the USA have followed these footsteps. Brandy Osocalis from Santa Cruz in California is also using a cognac pot still (i.e., Charentais) and is using multiple grape varietals. In fact, the blending of different grape varietals is what makes this so interesting as it is absolutely illegal in France and therefore it cannot be experienced any other way than with these Californian Brandies.
- Brandy Osocalis
Another one to mention is Brandy Charbay from St Helena, CA which is using Folle Blanche grape varietal, that is the old style of grapes used in Cognac prior to phylloxera, see www.charbay.com
- Brandy Charbay
Now, excuse me for my saying but brandy is still not cognac. I guess this is what Hubert Germain-Robin was thinking too when he decided to partner and create Cognac Surrenne. There are many kinds of cognac offered under the brand Surrenne, including the affordable Borderies type.
- Cognac Surrenne Borderies
But I am most intrigued by the less than 1000 bottles limited edition Petite Champagne. The story goes that starting in 1922, Maison Surrenne cellar masters filled an oak barrel (called tonneau in French) with small lots of old petite champagne Cognacs - some dating back to the 1800's. They topped off the barrel every year for 79 years, always with petite champagne eau-de-vie of the highest quality. That's sound good!
- Cognac Surrenne Tonneau 1
The problem is when you top off your barrel this way it makes it difficult to know the age as legally defined by the Bureau National Interprofessionel du Cognac (BNIC) institution in charge of protecting and regulating cognac. In Cognac and contrary to Scotch, the youngest cognac added gives the age of the spirit. Versus Scotch is 50% of 1 age makes 100% of the overall age.
---> Cognac = 99% 50 years old and 1% 2 years old = a 2 years old cognac
---> Scotch = 99% 50 years old and 50% 2 years old = a 50 years old scotch
It is not fair!!
Source: http://www.surrenne.com
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