Cognac

Cognac takes its name from a town in the Charente, inland from the Atlantic coast and north of Bordeaux. The boundary around it is a legal one, mapped by decree in the early twentieth century after decades of argument over who could use the name. The appellation rules that followed set out the permitted grapes, the method of distillation, the casks and the minimum ageing, and they run the whole way from vineyard to bottle. Grape spirit made outside that line is brandy. It may be very good brandy, but it is not cognac.

The region divides into six crus: Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies, Fins Bois, Bons Bois and Bois Ordinaires. Champagne here means open chalk country and has no connection to the sparkling wine region, which catches out almost everyone the first time they meet it on a label. The two Champagne crus sit on the deepest chalk and give spirit that is floral and slow to mature, so they reward long ageing. Borderies is the small one, rounder and nuttier. The outer woods ripen faster and tend to be blended for earlier drinking, which is a different job rather than a lesser one.

The grades are counted from the spring following distillation, and each describes the youngest spirit in the blend rather than the average age. VS asks for at least two years in oak, VSOP for at least four, Napoleon for at least six and XO for at least ten. A blend can and often does hold spirit far older than its grade admits. The grade tells you what cannot be below a certain age, and nothing else.

It marks a blend drawn only from the two Champagne crus, with at least half from Grande Champagne. It says where the grapes grew and nothing about age, so read it alongside the grade rather than instead of it.

Nearly all of it is Ugni Blanc, the grape Italy knows as Trebbiano. It ripens late, holds a sharp acidity and makes a thin, low-alcohol wine that few people would want to drink, which is exactly what a copper pot still wants. Folle Blanche and Colombard are permitted and still appear in small quantities. The wine is distilled twice, and only the heart of the second run is kept.

A tulip glass with a narrowed rim holds the aroma, where a wide balloon concentrates the alcohol instead. Serve it at room temperature and skip the warming ritual, which only pushes ethanol vapour up ahead of the fruit.