The 6 Crus of Cognac: Growth Area and Region
The Cognac region consists of six vineyard growth areas, called 'Crus', or 'terroir'. The grapes used for Cognac brandy must always come from this French region. The area covers the Charente-Maritime, a large part of the Charente, and some smaller parts of Deux-Sèvres and the famous Dordogne.
The "Origine Controlée Cognac" (AOC) Cognac is an Appellation that totals about 79,000 hectares of vineyards (that's 790 million square meters). The wine region of Cognac is the second biggest of France, right...
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The Role of the Cellar Master
What is the role of the Cellar Master? Whether head of the largest of houses or the smallest craft producer, this position is without doubt the most important one when it comes to making outstanding Cognac.
Let’s delve into this a little further, because this is not a role that you simply walk into. Indeed, it really is an art that takes years, or even decades, to perfect.
The key attributes
A cellar master lives by his senses. And by this we...
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Organic Cognac Today: Its Pioneers, and what to buy
Let’s start out with the basics: to make organic Cognac, a vintner must begin by growing organic grapes. Since grapes are a perennial crop, a farmer must cultivate them organically (with no chemical pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers) for at least three sequential years to be able to label the Cognac produced as organic.
Some Background
Grapevines, when planted in monoculture and farmed intensively, like all other species are more prone to illness, so vintners must treat the vines in order to...
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Discovery & Recommendation: Find your favorite XO Cognac you don’t know
XO Cognacs are a mystery. We at Cognac Expert invested a lot of time into creating a personal Cognac recommender, for you.
Our team had an extensive tasting in order to create this recommendation quiz. Our discovery quiz allows you to distinguish between 80 different Extra Old (XO) Cognacs.
In the end you will receive a link (and a 10% voucher!) to learn more about your Cognac or purchase.
Can't find the quiz? Scroll up!
Thanks for participating! Oh, and if you missed the quiz, scroll up.
Sophie & Max
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Cognac and Rum… What’s the difference?
When it comes to spirits, you might think how it can be that there's such a huge difference between the different types on offer. After all, alcohol is produced by distillation or fermentation of grapes, potato, grain, and many other things. So how come they’re all so different? We’ve reported in the past about the difference between cognac and vodka, so continuing in this series, we’re now going to talk about the difference between our favorite spirit Cognac and Rum...
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