The French State keeps an eagle eye on every bottle of cognac from wine press to Customs Office, a supervision which may irk the farmer a bit, but which is vastly reassuring to the foreign purchaser. Just as soon as his grapes are pressed, the farmer must go to the Town Hall and declare the amount of wine he has obtained from his grapes, including the amount he keeps for family consumption, as well us his old stocks of wine. These declarations are posted in public for all his neighbors to see. If he doesn't declare his harvest, he can't ship any wine or brandy, because the Régie won't give him the necessary papers. If the farmer has a distillery, he must declare it, and ask for a permit to operate it. Then the inflexible little man in uniform unseals the still, and the farmer can go to work. But the Régie sends its men often to check on the farmer. They know exactly how much wine, how much brandy, and how much trouble the poor harassed man has at any given moment. If he falls short on his stock, he receives a large fine. If he has too much brandy, the excess can be seized. It's very annoying, but this is one of the reasons why cognac is such a reliable product.
Cognac is grown almost exclusively in the two départements of the Charente and the Charente-Maritime, new-fangled appellations fur the ancient provinces of Angoumois, Saintonge, and Aunis. Among the 23, 000-odd producers of cognac, only a few operate on a large scale, perhaps 5 per cent of them. Some growers are much more fortunately situated than others. Those who own the most barren, meager, chalk-infested soil are, by some special dispensation of nature, the luckiest. The Jurassian soil, gray and dull, peppered with chalky stones, is the same type of soil found in England and in the champagne country near Reims, but in the Charente it is distinguished by the absence of certain forms of cephalopodes and brachiopodes. That makes the big difference, together with the subtle salt breezes and the brilliant, actinic sunlight of the Charente, which brings out the best in the grapes, but never burns them. A century or so back an inquisitive old French geologist had a hunch that the quality of cognac varied inversely with the fertility of the soil. The chalkier the land the better the brandy, he figured, and he rook ten years working out a geological map to prove his point. When (he experts were called in to test his theory by exhaustive tastings, they agreed with the old gentleman completely. Since that time the Charente has been divided into areas which are far more important than mere man-made lines on a map. These are the seven sovereign districts, or growths, of Cognac, beginning at the lordly peak of La Grande Champagne and ending with the lowly ocean stretches of Bois Communs and Hois Ordinaires. The principal subdivisions are:
La Grande Champagne: This region furnishes the clearest, most delicate and refined cognac. It improves most with age, and brings the highest prices.
La Petite Champagne: The cognac from this area has the same qualities as that listed above, but to a slightly lesser degree. It shares with La Grande Champagne the honor of being labeled “Fine Champagne.”
Les Borderies: This very small area produces cognac much sought after for its individual charm, softness, and ability to age rapidly.
Les Fins Bois: These are chalky areas, not too influenced by the salty proximity of the Atlantic and the Gironde River. They yield a cognac less fine than that above, but it ages more rapidly.
Les Bons Bois: More exposed to the sea air, this area produces a cognac that is agreeable, but often thin.
Les Bois Ordinaires and Bois Communs: These take in many different areas, including the islands off La Rochelle, where the climate and sale air can be brutal.
With soil and climate to favor him, the Charente farmer needs to rely on only one other ally—time. The years transform his young elixir into smooth, delicate, amber cognac. The long rows of barrels reposing in his ehaix represent his family fortune, to be passed down from father to son. An investment in cognac is as good as gold to these people, and much better than securities or bank notes, as bitter experience has proven. But such a treasure is not accumulated without paying a price, and in cognac it amounts to almost a ransom. The robber is evaporation, and the penalty it imposes is staggering. livery day in the Charente 25, 000 bottles of cognac disappear into thin air by evaporation—a number which about equals the quantity consumed in all of France. The sun is cognac's best and most voracious customer, by far. But the penalty produces a thing of splendor in the long run.
Evaporation is not only costly, it is distinctly unbeautiful, leaving a trail of minute, blackish fungus around it. Walls and roofs of Charente farmhouses arc darkened by this smoky stain, proclaiming their activities to any passerby, and making it impossible to hide from the Régie.From an aesthetic point of view, the interior of a brandy warehouse isn't inspiring. The casks, stacked three high, are blackened with fungus too. The end of each one is a perfect blackboard for the chalk marks of the régisseur. The complete pedigree of each cask is required by the Régie—contents, age, strength.
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