How cognac is made

The thin, sour wine behind cognac is described as nearly undrinkable, and that is what makes it good for distilling.

stations: 6
things upstream: 43
raw sources: 19
steps from the ground: 6

The short version

Cognac is brandy made from a very dry, acidic white wine, distilled twice in copper pot stills in the Cognac region of France and aged in oak for at least two years. A master blender then marries spirits of different ages. About 3 percent evaporates from every cask each year.

Press the grapes

White grapes, mostly Ugni blanc, Folle blanche and Colombard, are pressed. The wine made from them is dry, acidic and thin, and well suited to distilling and aging.

Goes in
Wine grapes
Ferment with wild yeast

The juice ferments for two to three weeks using the region's native wild yeast. Neither sugar nor sulphur may be added, and the wine ends up 7 to 8 percent alcohol.

2 to 3 weeks
Distill twice in copper

The wine is distilled twice in Charentais copper alembic stills, whose design and size are controlled by law. The result is a colorless spirit of about 70 percent alcohol.
Age in Limousin oak

The spirit rests in Limousin oak casks for at least two years before sale, at about 70 percent alcohol to start. It loses about 3 percent each year to evaporation, called the angels' share.

at least 2 years

Goes in
Oak wine barrel
Blend the ages

A master taster combines spirits of different ages and sources to keep a house style consistent. The age on the label is that of the youngest spirit in the blend.
Bottle it

The blend is brought to bottling strength and filled into glass bottles.

Goes in
Glass bottle Water

End of the lineCognac

Worth repeating

After more than fifty years in oak, cognac falls to 40 percent alcohol and is moved to large glass bottles called bonbonnes, because wood stops adding flavor after four or five decades.
Cognac houses buy from hundreds of vineyards that also sell their own bottlings.