Cognac is arguably history’s most esteemed spirit. A drink for royalty, noblemen and the upper class, it has long signified opulence and quality. Rum, whisky and gin were the spirits of the everyman, poured for people drinking to forget the day. But as the reputation of those “lower” spirits has climbed, Cognac’s has quietly drifted the other way, and that drift has left behind one of the great value opportunities in spirits today.
The Origins of Cognac
Cognac’s origins trace back to the 1600s, when Dutch merchants discovered the wines of the Charente. To preserve them for the long voyage home, the Dutch distilled those wines into eau-de-vie, and in 1610 the Chevalier de la Croix-Maron distilled that eau-de-vie a second time, vastly improving its quality. The resulting spirit was barrel-aged and exported across Europe.
Named for the town at the heart of the Charente, Cognac became especially popular in the United Kingdom, and a number of producers established themselves there in turn. Across the 17th and 18th centuries, the houses of Martell, Hennessy, Rémy Martin and Hine were all founded. Those names still dominate today. In 1860, Napoleon III signed a free trade agreement with England, and Cognac sales exploded.
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Cognac is a tightly controlled spirit, governed by its own Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée. It must be made within the designated Cognac region, from Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche or Colombard grapes, with only minor allowances for other regional varieties. It must be distilled twice in a copper pot still before the 31st of March following the harvest, and it cannot be sold until it has spent at least two years maturing in oak. Its classifications (VS, VSOP, Napoléon, XO and beyond) correspond to minimum age requirements, and it can’t be bottled below 40% ABV.
The geographical boundaries were first defined in 1909, though official AOC status wasn’t granted until 1936, the same year as Champagne’s. That long history of distilling and patient barrel-ageing built Cognac’s reputation for excellence. In an era when most other spirits saw minimal time in wood, often under a year, Cognac stood apart as a mature, considered drink.
Reputation Changes
In the 1870s phylloxera, a pest, devastated France’s vineyards and crippled Cognac’s export supply. England, one of its largest markets, turned to sherry as a substitute, while the rise of blended Scotch created fresh competition. The industry recovered, but its character had fundamentally shifted along with the loss of its old vines.
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READ THE STORYEven so, Cognac’s standing stayed lofty: a true luxury good, affordable only to the wealthiest. British colonies, Australia chief among them, spent decades trying to produce a brandy to rival French Cognac. Many arguably succeeded, but Cognac’s prestige proved unshakeable, and wealthy consumers throughout the 20th century continued to demand only the finest, most mature French bottlings.
Its audience did broaden, though not through the front door. African American soldiers deployed to France during the World Wars were introduced to the country’s spirits, cuisine and culture. Back home they faced segregation and discrimination, but in the nightclubs of Paris they had been welcomed without reservation. Many of those servicemen came to love Cognac and brought that affection home with them. It made for a fiercely loyal customer base, but sales still lagged through the white spirits boom of the 1960s and beyond, hampered by Cognac’s image as an old man’s drink.
That changed dramatically in the 1990s and early 2000s, when Cognac found new life in hip-hop culture. Busta Rhymes’ “Pass the Courvoisier” alone is credited with driving a roughly 30 percent lift in category sales. Crucially, most of that growth came in the affordable VS, VSOP and XO tiers that had otherwise struggled to move.
The Inbetween
Today’s Cognac market occupies a strange position. Cheap Hennessy, Rémy and Courvoisier sit as bottom-shelf staples in liquor stores worldwide, while those same houses produce ultra-aged, elaborately presented decanters priced in the tens of thousands of dollars. It’s a category that manages to feel simultaneously too cheap to bother with and too expensive to explore properly.
That’s where I come in, as a spirits enthusiast who lives somewhere in the middle. The Cognac category has made almost no effort to reach people like me. I don’t want bottom-shelf Hennessy, but I’m also not paying $3,000 for a Baccarat decanter of unlabelled, undisclosed-age spirit. So why bother with the category at all?
Because a new generation of independent bottlers is finally putting real value back into that empty middle.
The Independent Cognac Bottlers Move In
Buying someone else’s raw ingredients or finished product and bottling it under your own name is nothing new. Cognac as we know it was built on exactly this model. The biggest houses, Courvoisier, Rémy Martin, Hennessy and Martell among them, have long bought eaux-de-vie from local growers and distillers before blending it themselves. These négociants built the industry into what it is today. But a newer wave of smaller, boutique négociants and distillers place far more emphasis on vintage, maturation and the quality of the liquid itself than on branding.
The last decade has seen an explosion of traditionally whisky-focused independent bottlers pivoting to Cognac, Armagnac and brandy casks. The COVID era sent whisky cask prices through the roof and thinned out the supply of mature stock, so bottlers like Decadent Drinks, Cadenhead’s, The Whisky Agency and The Whisky Jury have all released highly mature brandies into the post-pandemic market.
These bottlers have carried their whisky practices over wholesale: quality, vintage, mature liquid, transparently presented and priced within reach. Most striking is the sheer availability of casks aged north of 100 years. In early 2024, The Whisky Jury released a 1910 vintage Cognac, well over a century in wood, that retailed for just shy of $1,000 USD. Set that against the fancy decanters that vaguely gesture at old liquid somewhere in their blend while charging $3,000 a bottle.
A Century In Wood
I was recently privileged to try a 100-year-old Cognac from a local Australian independent bottler that specialises in fine French brandies. Old Master Spirits was founded in 2020 by Deni Kay and David Vuu, two whisky geeks with formidable collections of old bottles. David holds one of the best Japanese whisky collections I’ve seen, while Deni has a truly awe-inspiring archive of vintage Scotch.
The pair launched with a 1957 vintage Grand Champagne Cognac aged for 63 years, and have gone on to bottle a flurry of exceptionally aged brandies from across France: genuine, high-strength, transparently presented releases at world-leading prices. Their recent 100-year-old Famille Cabanne Cognac, bottled for their fifth anniversary, yielded just 42 bottles from refill Séguin Moreau coarse-grained oak that spent its entire life maturing on clay soil at Maine Gallard.
I was lucky enough to taste it. Here are my notes on this century-old liquid:
Nose: Decadent icing sugar and cinnamon scrolls. Effervescent and punchy. For a 100-year-old spirit there is still solid alcohol presence here. A delicate sweet citrus kicks around at the back of the nose, sliding into lemon curd with time.
Palate: Chewy, full-bodied and textural. Very floral at first, before a sharp turn into spice and heavy tropical fruit: mango, papaya, guava. Dry oak through the mid-palate pulls the sweetness back out before the profile rebounds into orchard fruit, with plenty of red-skinned apple.
Finish: Soft, elegant and refined. The cinnamon and oak spice from the nose leads, before pure fresh red apple settles in the mouth.
David and Deni have placed a big focus on sourcing genuinely exceptional casks of spirit and this insane 100 year-old is a perfect exemplar of that philosophy. Their other offerings are equally as nuts, routinely over 50-years-old and retailing for very reasonable sums. I genuinely recommend seeking out their bottlings along with other similar value driven independent bottlers.
Old Master Spirit’s century-old spirit retailed for around that same earlier noted $1,000 USD mark. So let’s talk about just how good that value really is.
Doing The Maths
It’s worth understanding up front that Cognac, by its nature, is a soft, delicate and refined spirit. It isn’t as robust or full-bodied as a typical whisky. But given time it develops characteristics that whisky geeks will adore.
On a pure numbers-to-numbers comparison, the oldest single malt currently on the market retails for £125,000, or around $169,000 USD. That’s the 85-year-old Artistry in Oak from Gordon & MacPhail, which I’ve reviewed here. No whisky has reached the 100-year mark yet, although there are persistent rumours that Gordon & MacPhail have casks earmarked for that milestone. So while a Cognac may be lighter and softer than a malt whisky, the ability to buy a 100-year-old spirit for roughly 1/169th of the price should be evidence enough that French brandy deserves your attention.
The same logic holds at the affordable end. Whole labels and independent bottlers exist to find exceptional, affordable casks of Cognac and Armagnac and bring them to market. L’Encantada, Through The Grapevine and historic négociants like Darroze offer regional brandies with excellent age statements at prices Scotch simply cannot match.
Even the Cognac houses themselves, outside of the largest players, have recognised this new audience. Jean-Luc Pasquet, Vallein Tercinier, Tiffon and many more have quietly released single casks and highly aged expressions aimed squarely at spirits enthusiasts. Plainly presented bottles in standard glass, intended to be drunk rather than displayed.
Final Thoughts
I’m firmly a whisky drinker first and foremost, but I simply cannot deny the quality and value on offer in the French brandy market right now. At a time when there is more spirit available to buy than ever before, Cognac stands out as a category delivering exceptional age and quality for the money.
If you’ve been on the fence about trying Cognac, or if your only experience of the category has come via Hennessy or Rémy, do yourself a favour and seek out these independent négociants. And trust me, there are plenty of days where an elegant, soft, refined but complex spirit is far more welcome than a big, bold whisky.
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