alanstrip: Cognac, France

Cognac was absolutely amazing. I am really lucky to have visited such a small French town. Everyone I met was really nice and helpful and tried to work with the language barrier. I really enjoyed this visit. I tried many of the local spirits, went to a museum, and enjoyed the quiet beautiful countryside. I visited the Hennessey, Otard, and Martell Cognac distilleries and took a tour at each. These tours were very interesting and taught me a lot about the distillation and aging of this region’s biggest export: Cognac. I really did not know too much about what goes into this aperitif, so I am happy to have learned something. Most of these pictures are pretty self-explanatory but there is a lot of effort that goes into production similar to that of a fine wine. I guess they only use the white grape from only a small region of 5 different types of grapes. Also, the aging process in handmade oak barrels is what really gives the cognac its colour. I found all this very cool and I was fascinated to see such a small city become world famous selling a fine quality product that is unique and profiting from it handsomely. I hope you enjoy these pictures and I would love to chat about this visit to Cognac with anyone interested.