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Despite the fact that today the term “cognac” has become a household name and is used to define grape brandies of any “nationality”, strictly speaking, this is still an exclusively French property. The history of the creation of cognac is overgrown with many myths and legends. In addition to the French, the Italians also claim the championship of inventors, and the very name of the town of Cognac generally comes from the name of the Roman governor Konyu.
Legend
A beautiful (but implausible) version of the appearance of cognac looks like this: the noble knight (part-time winemaker and alchemist) Jacques de la Croix Maron, catching his wife with her lover, killed both, and then for a long time could not get rid of the pangs of conscience. Once, in a dream, the devil appeared to him and announced that he intended to boil the unfortunate knight for two whole times, in order to surely separate his immortal soul from the body. The next morning the grower understood what he had to do. He took a weak wine, drove it twice through the distillation apparatus, cut off the “head” and “tail” (the first and last portions), thus obtaining the “soul” – cognac alcohol. The knight poured the distillate into an oak barrel and presented it to the monks. But the pious brothers forgot about the present, starting the tasting only a few years later. In the barrel was a delicious, fragrant and strong drink.
Italian version
The descendants of the Romans claim that it was they who came up with the technology of distilling wine, as evidenced by a barrel of grape brandy, presented for the wedding of the French king Henry II and Catherine de Medici back in the XNUMXth century.
Data
In fact, there were no unclean and deceived husbands. The history of cognac is a chain of accidents and coincidences. Since the XNUMXth century, salt has been traded in the port city of Cognac on the Charente River and good, but weak and unstable Saint-Emilion wine has been made, which could not withstand either long-term storage or sea transportation, so from about the XNUMXth century it began to be distilled into wine alcohol, using Dutch distillation technologies. It turned out “burnt wine”, which, upon arrival at the destination, was again diluted to the original fortress. It turned out even cheaper – the duties depended on the volume, and in such a simple way it turned out to sell more products with less taxes.
Over time, the French improved the distillation apparatus and even came up with the idea of subjecting the raw material to a double distillation. The stocks of distillate multiplied, some barrels stale, and quite by accident it was discovered that brandy becomes much tastier and softer over time – this is how cognac appeared.
In 1778, France began to export cognac to England on special terms, at reduced duties, and from the 1860s, barrel-aged wine spirit (aka cognac) began to be bottled and sold as an independent drink, and not “concentrated” wine. , which then needs to be diluted with water. The manufacturer’s name appeared on the label. It is this moment that is considered the starting point for the appearance of cognac as a separate alcoholic drink.
Grapes and Charente alambic
Traditionally, Folle Blanche, Colombard, Montil were used for the production of cognac, but they were seriously affected by the phylloxera epidemic, so modern brandy in the city of Cognac is made almost exclusively from Trebbiano (Ugni Blanc).
At the beginning of the XNUMXth century, the export of cognac increased dramatically (mainly due to improved trade relations with England), so that outdated technologies had to be improved. The French took the copper alambik inherited from the Dutch, added an additional capacity between the distillation cube and the cooler and received a device for continuous double distillation. The apparatus has not changed for more than two centuries and is still successfully used for the production of original cognacs and brandy.
History of cognac in Russia
Let’s make a reservation right away that “cognac” is a name controlled by origin, and this drink can only be produced in the French region of the same name. Speaking of “Russian cognac”, we mean brandy made from the same raw materials and using approximately the same technologies.
Two companies contributed to the spread and development of cognac business on the territory of the Russian Empire.
“D.Z. Sarajev »
At first, the entrepreneur kept just a cognac warehouse in Tiflis, and in 1888 he opened a full-fledged factory. By 1904, the company’s products received almost all conceivable awards and “noted” at many international exhibitions.
“K.L. Shustov with his sons “
This Yerevan brand became famous all over the world thanks to a clever advertising campaign. At the very beginning of the XNUMXth century, Mr. Shustov sent young men on “business trips” to Europe, so that they would go to the best restaurants and loudly demand Shustov’s cognac. When it was not on the menu, the bribed visitors were no less loudly indignant: “How? Don’t you have this best cognac in the world?!”
Shustov’s alcohol was so good that it even got the right to be called cognac, because sommeliers could not distinguish its taste from the original French products during blind testing.
Today, “Russian cognac” is produced in several regions, the main of which is Kizlyar, also famous for vodka-kizlyarka, and in Soviet times, “cognacs” from Georgia, Moldova, and Armenia enjoyed special respect.