A Cognac Cocktail Comeback?

Cognac producers in France are working hard to battle declining sales around the world -- in Japan, the United States and other countries, sales of Cognac are flat or falling. The main bright spot is in China where sales are climbing and, according to a Hennessey executive I spoke with at the 3rd annual Cognac Summit earlier this week, people are drinking Cognac with their meals -- neat, over ice, or with water.

Cognac, a spirit with a 40% alcohol content, takes its name from the southwestern region of France where Cognac producers are located. The firewater is distilled twice before aging for from two years to as long as many decades, but only after producers grow Ugni Blanc wine grapes and make a white wine, which would be too high in acid and too low in alcohol to serve as a still wine. That’s why I tend to think of it as another form of wine rather than a spirit.

At the meeting, I found that part of the Cognac strategy is to re-vitalize classic Cognac cocktails from a bygone era. I was surprised to learn that the original Mint Julep and Alexander, among others, were made with Cognac. Producers such as Hennessey, Courvoisier and Remy Martin invited creative “mixologists” (aka bartenders) from throughout Europe and the United States so they could educate them about Cognac and explore new ways of making it more relevant to today’s bar and restaurant scene.

Cognac is not an inexpensive spirit and can drive the price of cocktails up to unpalatable levels so that‘s a problem for bars and restaurants. “Cognac is not the most cost-effective mixer but you have to have it because people expect it,” says Julie Reiner, of the Flatiron Lounge in Manhattan and Clover Club in Brooklyn, New York. It’s easy to see why Cognac is costly -- it’s most often a blend of many different years of Cognac‘s elixir, some aged in the finest French oak barrels for many years.

The photos that accompany this post are from the Musée des arts du Cognac, a beautiful tribute to the lifeblood of the Cognac community, and the meeting, where 60 or so participants slaved for three days to put their marks on Cognac cocktails. In the process we consumed a fair amount of it and visited several Cognac houses including Hine and Chateau Ferrande. A highlight was a tasting at the museum of 16 smaller Cognac producers, such as Delamain, Frapin and Chateau de Montifaud, which many of the mixologists, who purchase for their bars, were impressed with. One, Leopold Gourmel, even offered a biodynamic Cognac.

One of the bartenders, Todd Appel, from the Crimson Lounge in Chicago's Hotel Sax, suggested to me that I make a Manhattan, one of my favorite cocktails, with Cognac instead of the usual rye whiskey. I tried it the night I returned home from France and loved it.