Cognac
alcoholic beverage; variety of brandy
Cognac ( KON-yak, also US: KOHN-, KAWN-, French: [kɔɲak] ) is a variety of brandy named after the commune of Cognac, France. It is produced in the surrounding departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime, in an officially designated wine-growing region. This region is divided into six districts with different cognacs produced in each.
Cognac production falls under French appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) designation, with production methods and naming required to meet certain legal requirements. Among the specified grapes, Ugni blanc, known locally as Saint-Émilion, is most widely used. The brandy must be twice distilled in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in French oak barrels from Limousin or Tronçais, Allier or Nevers – the majority coming from the first two. Cognac matures in the same way as whiskies and wines barrel-age, and most cognacs spend considerably longer "on the wood" than the minimum legal requirement.
Cognac is often drunk in glasses such as the snifter, which has a large tapered bowl and short stem. Such glasses allow the drinker to enjoy the aroma of the drink by placing their hand underneath the bowl and warming the cognac inside, causing it to produce more fumes.
Production process
Cognac is a type of brandy, and after the distillation and during the aging process, is also called eau de vie.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cognac” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.