Cognac_directory_FINAL

at the very northern limit of its cultivation, it remains
relatively green and acid and produces a different type of
juice than when grown in Italy. Its other major advantage
is that it starts budding late and so, like the Balzac, is less
susceptible to the area’s late spring frosts. Cognac’s long,
light but not hot summers ensure that there is a certain
intensity in the juice. Since the grapes are not fully ripe
when they are picked, it lacks even the little aroma and
bouquet it develops when fully mature.
Until phylloxera, cultivation was higgledy-piggledy.
Replanting was carried out either in rows or in blocks.
In the last twenty years vineyards have been adapted for
harvesting by machine and the vines have been trained far
higher than previously. It is easy to see the result with the
older, thicker trunks pruned right back, the newer trained
up to 1.2–1.5 metres (4–5 feet) high on trellises. Because
the wines do not need to be more than adequate older vines
are not important as they are in providing the concentration
for fine wine, so the vines are dug up when they are a mere
thirty-five or forty years old. The optimum age is between
twenty and thirty years, for the younger vines tend to give
too much juice which lacks concentration and thus the
grapes lack flavour. To help the machines the space between
the rows has been doubled to just over 2.8 metres (9 feet),
and although the vines are planted more closely, there are
still only 3,000 to each hectare, 1,000 fewer than under
the old system. High vines help the plants adapt to climate
change because in hot weather the grapes are sheltered from
the sun.
Vines are pruned less severely than in Bordeaux, allowing
for higher production of inevitably more acid wines because
you don’t need the ‘phenolic maturity’ which gives flavours
for table wine. Nevertheless, the grapes mustn’t be too
green, they must have at least 8 per cent of alcohol. But too
much manure must not be used and the vines must not be
pruned too lightly to produce massive numbers of grapes,
otherwise the balance will be disturbed, and the acid level
will inevitably be reduced. Nevertheless the ‘natural’ yield
now averages over 100 hectolitres for every hectare of vines,
double the 1945 level and even then a fifth below the level
recommended by viticulturists.
The Saint-Emilion matures so late that even the relatively
unripe Cognac grapes used to be ready for picking only in
mid-October – though harvest is now up to three weeks
earlier than a couple of decades ago thanks to global warming.
The only limit to the date of the harvest is the frost, generally
expected in late October, which, in a bad year like 1980, can
ruin the quality of the wine. Harvesting machines were a
natural choice for the region because the Cognacais are not
particularly interested in quality, but with early models the
wines were rather ‘green’ for the very obvious reason that the
machines were too violent and sucked in twigs and leaves as
well as grapes. Opponents even alleged – incorrectly – that the
hydraulic machinery was badly insulated and tended to leak
tiny quantities of oil on to the grapes resulting in an oiliness
which was inevitably exaggerated by distillation. But today
the machines employ flayers which make the vines vibrate
and don’t maul the bunches of grapes. Oddly, they can now
be too selective and thus reject the greener grapes that used to
prove useful in providing the right amount of acidity in the
blend. They are ideal for harvesting the Ugni Blanc which
has a thin skin, making it susceptible to oxidation. And their
speed means that they can come in handy when, as in 1989
and 2010 the alcohol levels are rising fast and early – and of