Cognac

Kyle Jarrard

Description

"Rich in history and admirable scholarship. . . . It's a fine grande champagne of a book, to be savored over and over."
-Patricia Wells, author of The Provence Cookbook
Called the "brandy of the gods" by Victor Hugo, Cognac is a universal symbol of refinement and quality. In the first comprehensive history of this celebrated drink, Kyle Jarrard charts Cognac's birth in the 1500s and its transformation into the world's most coveted brandy. Along the way, he reveals how Cognac distillers weathered vineyard die-offs, the German occupation, and other challenges over the years-and offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at Hennessy, Remy-Martin, Courvoisier, Martell, and other legendary brands.
For any Cognac lover, this fascinating book will make the perfect gift.
Kyle Jarrard (Paris, France) is a senior editor at the International Herald Tribune and author of the highly acclaimed novels Over There and Rolling the Bones.
Introduction.

The Grapes Are Coming.

Much Ado about Salt and Wine.

The Difficult Birth of an Eau-de-Vie.

Mayhem on the Charente.

Rising Houses, Rising Fortunes.

A Distillate Turns Golden.

Phylloxera and The Texas Cure.

The German Who Saved Cognac.

Glory Years, with Feathers.

Tale of a Big House,

Tale of a Little House.

The Last of the Mohicans.

From the Nursery to the Glass.

Agendas for Tomorrow.

The Spirit Flows On.

Acknowledgements.

Sources.

Picture Credits.

Index.

Sujets

• Cuisine
• La cuisine et son histoire
• Europe
• Western
• Hennessy
• Courvoisier
• History
• Martell (entreprise)
• General
• Alcoholism
• Cooking
• Drink
• History of Europe
• General officer
• Martell
• Alcoholic
• Beverages
• Alcoholic Beverages

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 21 avril 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780470318324
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

C OGNAC
C OGNAC
T HE S EDUCTIVE S AGA OF THE W ORLD S M OST C OVETED S PIRIT
K YLE J ARRARD
J OHN W ILEY S ONS , I NC .
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright 2005 by Kyle Jarrard. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada
Design and composition by Navta Associates, Inc.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com . Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone].
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
For general information about our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at [phone], outside the United States at [phone] or fax [phone].
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Jarrard, Kyle, date.
Cognac : the seductive saga of the world s most coveted spirit / Kyle Jarrard.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-471-45944-5 (cloth)
1. Brandy. I. Title.
TP599.J37 2005
641.2 53-dc22
2004011819
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my belle-famille charentaise
In Cognac, we understand how to wait. It s the only way to make it good.
-Jean Monnet (1888-1979), Cognac trader and European statesman
Cognac is born of exceptional circumstances. It is a natural prodigy, an accident, a miracle.
-Robert Delamain (1879-1949), author of the 1935 classic Histoire du Cognac
Claret is the liquor for boys; port, for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.
-Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
What a nice cup of tea!
-Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1900-2002), after tasting old Cognacs at Hennessy in 1980
C ONTENTS
_______________________

Introduction
The Grapes Are Coming
Much Ado about Salt and Wine
The Difficult Birth of an Eau-de-Vie
Mayhem on the Charente
Rising Houses, Rising Fortunes
A Distillate Turns Golden
Phylloxera and the Texas Cure
The German Who Saved Cognac
Glory Years, with Feathers
Tale of a Big House
Tale of a Little House
The Last of the Mohicans
From the Nursery to the Glass
Agendas for Tomorrow
The Spirit Flows On

Acknowledgments
Sources
Picture Credits
Index
I NTRODUCTION
To have a Cognac is to become a player in an old and rich story. People everywhere know about Cognac. They might not know just how it s made, but they like it. They might use it in a cocktail, or they might savor it for an hour. Either way, they ll remember it-that brandy from France.
Often expensive, Cognac is always classy. Pricey, because it takes so much work to take a mediocre white wine, distill it into crystalline firewater, and then age it in big oak barrels for years until, the miracle complete, it has become an amber-hued nectar. Seductive, because it satiates the senses with a fantastic range of fragrances, from white vine flowers to green apples, from apricots, peaches, and almonds to cloves, pepper, and the forest floor. Elegant, because it is an indisputable symbol of high refinement: a bottle of Cognac is the gift of gifts-the best of the best-to mark a grand success.
Cognac is the fruit of an incredible set of circumstances: the gentle climate of southwest France that makes grape growing the natural thing to do, easy access via the Charente River to the Atlantic for shipping Cognac to points north in Europe or to ports half a world away, and the proximity of great oak forests out of which to fashion venerable barrels without which Cognac wouldn t exist at all.
But these only begin to explain Cognac s raison d tre. Perfect geology has its fundamental place; Cretaceous oceans laid down the chalky basement upon which the house of Cognac has been built and into which the roots of the vineyard have grown deep. History has always been on Cognac s side, too, like a big brother, pushing it along or rescuing it from the abyss. More than once, this great drink stood at the edge of certain doom at the hands of despotic sovereigns, soft-headed politicians, and greedy businessmen-not to mention fickle and cruel Nature.
It s an epic tale. Just about everyone who ever had a part in the affairs of Cognac s ocean-facing motherland also had a hand, one way or another, in Cognac s destiny-be it Celts, Romans, Visigoths, Merovingians, Carolingians, Vikings, dukes of Aquitaine, kings and princes of England, barons of Poitou, counts of Angoul me, La Rochelle traders, French kings, Dutch distillers, Protestant exiles, Catholic zealots, English free traders, American horticulturists, German invaders, or European Union bureaucrats.
And just about anyone who ever lived in Cognac country or romped through it from the Bronze Age to the Internet Age has had a part, willing or not, in one conflict or another as France formed itself into a nation. People weren t fighting over brandy, of course; but again and again Cognac country found itself in the thick of various frays, whether during those long centuries when it was a premier wine-making region-its white wines were famous all over northern Europe-or since the late 1500s, when it began exporting the clear brandy called eau-de-vie and undertook its four-hundred-year march to markets the world over.
It was a rough journey made all the more difficult by the ups and downs of international trade: from war-halted commerce to staggering import duties, from contraband and fakery to usurpation of the Cognac name. Then there s the love-hate business feud fought across the Atlantic between the Americans and the French in the name of protecting chicken prices or soybean shipments, the bottle of Cognac with a duty hammer raised above it at each turn of the story. And don t forget the awful diseases that have cut through the vineyard, or the tiny louse that arrived on native American vines and wiped out the vines of Europe, or the solution to this Armageddon that came again from America, using old Texas vines. Not least should you forget the German lieutenant who rushed into France with the Nazis but, having been born and raised in Cognac himself, protected the stocks against his own thirsty armies. Doesn t this add up to a fine glass of luck?
Lovers of Cognac will tell you that of course it should have survived the grind of history. Because it unlocks the gastronomic soul of man and people crave it. Because it can t be copied. And because it s simply perfect.
Countless trading houses have watched over Cognac down through the years: n gociants like Hennessy (no. 1), R my Martin (no. 2), Martell, and Courvoisier (tied for no. 3), the giants who rule the realm today. Hundreds of others have come and gone, and yet these now-lost names speak of Cognac s perennial power to remake itself, to get through bad years and come out shining again, even if under someone else s roof. Many were those who shuddered as this family-run industry came to the attention of spirits groups back in the 1960s. But no disasters have occurred, even though almost all of the leading Cognac houses are now owned by multinationals. In fact this industry is in excellent health despite its many far-flung godfathers making decisions in places like Bermuda and Japan.
In fine form but top-heavy, which may or may not be good; the top four houses control 74 percent of the market, the top ten run 84 percent. That leaves only a sliver of the pie for dozens of other traders who manage despite the odds, but almost nothing for the independents who sell their own Cognac themselves. These proportions matter greatly, if only because there s so much money involved, a megamarket worth 1.3 billion a year, or about $1.6 billion; 95 percent of that is exports. Put another way, more than 127 million bottles of Cognac were shipped in the 2003 calendar year, nearly 121 million of those heading abroad. America absorbs the lion s share at 41 percent of all exported Cognac. Some 153 countries import it. Hardly a spot on the planet remains out of reach.
And yet Cognac doesn t rule the spirits market. Indeed, it has to fight for its spot on the bar shelf. According to Impact International, the worldwide sales market for Cognac is at least 110 million bottles per year; add to this all other brandies that aren t Cognac, and you get 158 million bottles. Whiskey s worldwide market is 980 million bottles; vodka sales are about the same, and so are rum s; gin s sales are 460 million bottles, and tequila s 385 million; and then there are the world s various liqueurs, which add up to 375 million bottles a year, plus all the home brews, which adds another 1.3 billion bottles. That leaves Cognac with just