Paul Beau Cognac

Now I am happy. I went for a tour of one of the local cognac distilleries and what a nice place it was.

I visited Paul Beau distillery right in Segozac and I was received by the owner and his wife, a very nice young couple. He is the 5^th generation running the distillery where they produce Cognac and Pineau.

They have 100 hectares = 247.105 acres of vineyard where they grow their own grapes.

And there I learned how they make the cognac.

First they harvest the grapes in October, and then they crush them and ferment them for 10 days.

Then they put them in the copper pots that you see in the enclosed picture, and they distill it once for 12 hours and then a second time for another 12 hours.

At this point the cognac is transparent and it doesn’t smell like cognac.

This process need to be finish by the end of March, it is the law.

It takes 10 kilos = 22 lb of grapes to make a 1 litter = 2.11 pints = .2641 of a gallon of cognac and it takes 24 hours for the distillation. So in other words: it takes 24 hours to produce 1 litter of cognac.

 Once the cognac has been distilled a second time, they put it in oak barrels in a dark cellar for many years to age.

As the cognac ages it keep on turning darker until it reaches the amber color. The darker the cognac the older and smoother it is.

Contrary to popular believe, cognac is not made out of one harvest. After the cognac is at a mature age, they blend the different flavor to achieve the desired flavor.

In 1900 when cognac was starting to be imported to England they stared using the abbreviation that we still use today, to make it easier to understand the age of the cognac.

·         VS = Very Special = is the youngest cognac, stored for at least two years

·         VSOP  = Very Superior Old Pale = stored at least for 4 years

·          XO = eXtra Old = stored for at least 6 years, but on average it is stores over 20 years.

After the tour I was treated to 4 very generous samples of the different cognacs, a VS, a VSOP, a XO and an even older cognac that was very nice and smooth. Actually they were all very nice.

Usually the local people in any country tend to drink the local drinks for every occasion,  and this region is not different.

We are used to drinking cognac after the meals, usually with the coffee. However here they also drink it as an aperitif, they put in a tall glass a shot of cognac, usually the VS, you don’t want to use an old cognac for this, and they fill the glass with Schweppes, or American style, instead of Schweppes they use ginger ale.  I don’t know where in the states they drink this, but that’s how it’s call here.

 I tried it, no bad, but I still prefer mine au natural.