by Maria Yagoda:
The pan sizzles as Pascal Tanné pours a small bottle of pineau, an aperitif made from a blend of unfermented grape must and cognac, over the rabbit browning in the pan. Tanné takes a swig from the bottle before adding, with delicate precision, a handful of prunes and the juice of an orange. Pineau, she explains, is found in the cellars and recipes of households all across France’s southwestern Charente region. The drink was allegedly discovered when a medieval winemaker added grape must into what he thought was an empty barrel. But the barrel, in fact contained cognac. When retrieved after years of fermentation, the lucky winemaker found the barrel filled with Pineau, the legendary Charentaise beverage — and ingredient — of choice.
- Ugni blanc grapes grow on the vines of hills in Charente (TYG/Yagoda).
As the economic crisis in America and now Europe spreads, these regional beverages must face more than poor export markets. People are not only changing the way they purchase and consume, choosing less expensive products, if any at all: They are also changing the way they think about alcohol’s place at the table. To salvage cognac, distillers must adjust to global demands while remaining true to the unique tradition behind their product. Maintaining historic internal markets and forging strong new ones, independent of foreign investment and competition, may be exactly what cognac needs to remain resilient. But this will not be easy, as France is changing too.
The Cognac Delimited Region in the southwest of France is the only region where eaux-de-vie, a brandy that goes through two distillations, is considered cognac by the French-controlled Appellation of Origin (OAC). The OAC has the legal authority to decree the specific mechanisms, grapes, locations, and aging times necessary for a product to be considered cognac. The designated region, bordered by the Atlantic on the west and the medieval city of Angouleme on the east, covers the Charente-Maritime and most of Charente. Ninety-five percent of the grapes that grow on the rolling hills of Charente are destined for cognac distillation.
‘’The great thing about making cognac,’’ Claude Monet once said, ‘’is that it teaches you above everything else to wait.’’ To produce a cognac de qualité, patience is as essential as the grapes. After the highly acidic ugni blanc grapes are harvested, distillation is carried out in two chauffés, or separate heatings, using a special Charentaise copper still. The cognac is then aged in oak casks often for decades, to ensure enough contact with the wood to give cognac its characteristic color and aroma.
Up until now, cognac has largely been protected from the fluctuations of the global marketplace. Vines still occupy over 200,000 acres of the cognac-making region. However, cognac’s stability — and its survival — is no longer a given. This regional treasure is threatened as producers face challenges brought on by decreasing exports, changing buying habits, and nasty grape diseases. Due to periods of overproduction and underwhelming sales, over 25,000 acres of vines have been uprooted in the past 15 years. In September 1998, cognac distillers protested the lack of French government support for cognac production. Within a week, the government promised $10.5 million worth of grants, mostly to growers who agreed to move out of grape growth in order to reduce overproduction. Money, however, can only treat the symptoms of an unfavorable market, while the whims of nature — and of culture — are out of the grower’s and government’s control.
Cognac Sales on the Decline
Cognac production began falling in the late 1990’s as markets in Asia, most notably Japan, suffered. Although these markets stabilized around 2007, there was a 25 percent reduction in cognac production that same year due to poor weather and disease. This pushed Pernod- Ricard, a large French alcohol company, to pull money out of cognac ventures and commit $200 million to making older, more profitable wines.
Frédéric Tanné, an organic farmer and vendor of cognac and pine- au, worries about the future of these regional drinks as sales continue to decline. “Because of the world crisis, the sale of cognac fell this year by 30 percent,” Tanné said. “The global population doesn’t consume alcohol like cognac anymore but rather cheap products like gin and vodka.” Or even beer. The raw material for cognac and wines costs up to 20 times the price of barley, which is also less susceptible to disease.
According to the Bureau National Interprofessionel du Cognac (BNIC), global shipments of cognac during the month of February 2009 fell a staggering 8.4 percent, or by roughly 143 million bottles.
Even within France, sales are falling. “There are fewer and fewer French people drinking alcohol with each meal,” explained Tanné. “We now reserve alcohol consumption for family gatherings or big occasions like marriages, baptisms, or holidays.”
Thirty years ago, 83 percent of households bought wine for their daily meals, while only 35 percent do so today. The size of the rural working population, known for incorporating alcohol into everyday life, has decreased, and the proliferation of fast food in France, including American chains like McDonald’s and French ones like
Quick, has meant that mealtime is often cut short. Even Tanné brings home Quick cheeseburgers and fries on nights when there is no time to prepare the standard three-course affair. These convenient meals do not require aperitifs, wines, and digestifs — Coca Cola suffices, and cognac sales drop.
Stephane Brunet, an organic distiller who lives in the heart of Poitou-Charentes, comes from five generations of cognac producers. He noted that changing attitudes toward alcohol consumption are also linked to national concerns for safety and that in the face of “increased incidents of drunk driving, there are many new policies towards the restriction of alcohol.” The National Assembly of France has taken many measures to control increased alcoholism, binge drinking, and alcohol-related accidents, most recently through legislation banning open bars. As alcohol consumption faces higher scrutiny, cognac sales take a further hit.
Some worry that cognac will face a fate similar to that of Bordeaux wines, which have experienced economic problems as a result of strong international competition from wines produced in North and South America, declining consumption in France, and government plans to uproot vines all together. The Bordeaux region is among the world’s major wine industry centers, with an annual production of over 700 million bottles and a history of wine production dating back to the 8th century. While it has about 287,000 acres of vineyards, 57 appellations, 10,000 wine-producing châteaux, the number of grape growers recently dropped from 14,000 to 13,000.
Plan Bordeaux, an initiative introduced in 2005 by ONIVINS, the French association for winemakers, was designed to reduce France’s wine glut, improve sales, and uproot roughly a seventh of the vineyards in Bordeaux. The results, however, have been minimal. International markets for wine remain unstable, and sales are consistently disappointing.
Brunet foresees a similar fate for cognac, if not now, then in the near future. “For the moment,” he explained, “not many cognac vineyards have been uprooted. While American markets have been declining, other markets, like in Asia, are on the rise. But in a year, I think there will be uprootings.”
Adapting to the Crisis
The trend in an increasingly vulnerable cognac industry has been to look globally, or, in many cases, to allow foreign control of local production. Russian producers eager to exploit growing demands for cognac at home have taken over six cognac producers in southwestern France in the past two years. The countless imitation cognacs popping up all over Russia, which do not have an organization like the AOC to control labeling and classification, have made many French producers concerned about Russian involvement in cognac.
Jean-Dominique Andreu of the BNIC defended foreign investment and production. “We must stop agitating fear,” he said, refuting what he considers to be predictable French suspicions that tend to surround new vendors. “In a year and a half, there will be 10 operations bought by Russians in the region. We must be pragmatic. In spite of the crisis, the Russians come here, they spend money, and it is good for our economy.”
While this boost is certainly welcome, global trends may threaten the century-old local traditions of growing, manufacturing, and even of consumption. And in the face of the global economic crisis, sustaining local markets may be necessary for the cognac industry as a whole to survive.
Phillipe Durande, a distiller of cognac, pineau, and local wines in hilly Blanzac, knows that today’s global market is not as accessible to the small producer. But more than 95 percent of cognac is sold abroad, especially to the United States, Asia, Russia, and Northern Europe. The cognac industry has also undergone drastic consolidation. Hennessy, Martell, Rémy Martin, and Courvoisier, the four largest industry branches, have bought up many smaller producers. These four cognac kings sell between 15 and 30 million bottles a year and control 90 percent of the world market. “Unfortunately,” Durande said, “little producers like us do not have the size to be on these markets.” However, foreign markets, at least in the face of global economic crisis, may not be an ideal place to be.
What Durande’s estate lacks in size is made up for in tradition. His family has been distilling cognac for generations at Le Maine Giraurd, the old estate of Romantic poet Alfred de Vigny. The land has been renovated into a tourist venue and working farm and continues to produce quality regional beverages.
Durande expressed his faith that the small, not-yet-monopolized viticulteurs, selling mostly on the French market and to private individuals, can remain resilient.“Big companies like Hennessy, Martell, or Courvoisier are probably more affected because they provide cognac all over the world,” he said.
When dealing with a product that takes 10 to 30 years to age, adapting to changing local demographics and global conditions can be tricky. But when it comes to making these changes, local producers appear to have the upper hand. They are more familiar with local cultural and economic shifts than large-scale companies. Many of the younger cognacs exported abroad by large corporations, often harsh and unpleasant, will most likely end up being mixed with Coca-Cola. These cognacs are rounded out with sugar syrup and boisé, an oak chip infusion that simulates barrel aging.
Patrick Peyrelongue, of family-run cognac merchant Delamain, refuses to make an inferior product in the face of struggle. And even though 85 percent of the cognac he sells is destined abroad, local markets and the kind of quality they demand will always remain a necessity. Delamain, which has been negotiating the price of its produce with local growers for decades, vows to help them through hard times.
“The local economy is extremely important to us,” Peyrelongue said. “We were recently faced with a strong increase in the selling price of cognac, for which we could fortunately compensate by the size of our stocks, making these increases less severe.”
And in response to the global climate crisis — a threat that mirrors the economic crisis — local cognac producers have already begun experimenting with new modes of production. “Temperatures are getting warmer; drought is becoming a problem in some regions of the world. All of this will change considerably our ways of production,” Durande said, with his characteristic optimism. “We have been making wines for centuries and wine-growers have already adapted their techniques over and over.”
One way producers are adjusting to new demands is by going organic. Tanné is pleased with the national trends towards more natural beverages. “French who consume alcohol are increasingly looking for organic wines because traditional ones have strong concentrations of pesticide,” he explained. Brunet is likewise confident that the trend towards organic, natural alcohol is a durable one, even in a time of economic frugality. “The world system is beginning to change. People are rethinking their modes of consumption. They want less marketing and publicity and more product,” he said.
Sometimes, quality can be found not in the eaux-de-vie sold on the market but in a homemade bottle that carries flavor of tradition. In Charente, most households make their own cognac and pineau, using the same vines and methods passed down for generations. At a family- run poultry farm in Blanzac, owner Fabrice pours himself and his wife a glass of his house pineau from an oversized water bottle. The flavor is earthy and musty, and it finishes with an easy sweetness. He and his wife unwind from a taxing day of tending to chickens, ducks, and geese. Perhaps this ultra-local, simple tradition of cognac — where it all began — is what lies ahead.
Maria Yagoda is a freshman in Calhoun College. In March, she worked on Frederic Tanné’s organic farm in the Charente region of France.