Ideal Wine Company Gives You an Education on Cognac

At the Ideal Wine Company we bring you a whole host of exclusive, vintage wines for your collection, however wine isn’t the only type of alcohol we have to offer you. We specialise in luxury drinks; in providing you with vintage bottles of wine, whiskey, brandy and other spirits, which are hard to find on the market and really add some value to your collection. One of these is Cognac, one of the most famous luxury brandies in existence. A favourite with collectors and drinkers alike, Cognac has built up a reputation over the years for its rich taste and decadent image.

A variety of brandy, the drink is actually named after the French town of Cognac; the drink is produced in the wine growing region around the town in the French Departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime. Like many drinks that originate in the French nation and have grown to have a lasting reputation, the history of Cognac is a long one, over four centuries long in fact. Wine producing in the region goes all the way back to the Roman era and even before the ‘invention’ of Cognac, the region was known for the quality of the drink it produced.

The invention of the drink came in the 17^th Century, when Dutch traders realised that if they first distilled the wine they exported from the region, and stored it on oak caskets, it took up less space, allowing them to export more, and improve with age. They called this product ‘burnt’ wine or ‘brandewijn’ which is where the name brandy originates. From here producers in the area saw the value of the drink and developed the double distillation technique that wold prove critical to the modern brandy making process.

In time this technique, as well as the oak preservation technique made the drink unique to the town, which is how Cognac as we know it gradually came into being, however it wasn’t until 1909 that this would be enshrined in official decree; Cognac became an exclusive brand, unique to the town. The process was completed in 1936, when it was awarded its own Appellation d’origine contrôlée or AOC, which legally denotes an area in which a particular product can be made. 

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The Appellation d’origine controlee protects the name Cognac, imposing certain rules and restrictions about which drink can bear the iconic name; it’s similar to the way the name ‘Champagne’ is protected. Cognac has grown to be a drink of elegance and class, and we have several delicious Cognac’s for you. We have the Remy Martin XO Champagne Cognac, priced from £110.40, we have the Delamain Pale and Dry XO Grande Champagne Cognac, priced from £110.40 and we have Claude Thorin VR Cognac, priced from £76.80.

Ideal Wine Company: Winemaking, a History...

We’re complete wine enthusiasts here at the Ideal Wine Company; we love everything about the world’s most sophisticated drink and we like to know as much as we can to ensure that we can bring you the best and most luxurious wines from all over the world. That’s why today we want to tell you about the history of winemaking; it’s a practise that’s been around for centuries, in its earliest forms even millennia, and it’s grown to become one of the most profitable industry’s the worlds ever known. Winemaking hasn’t just shaped what we drink, it’s shaped the way we live and we have a lot to be thankful to it for.

Winemaking in its very earliest form could be said to date back around 7,000 years, to the earliest forms of Viticulture (grape growing for the production of wine) in the Neolithic period. This led to the first ever productions of wines that, although were rudimentary and not up to today’s standards, were the start of what became a worldwide industry. The tradition was carried into the earliest of the typically ‘ancient’ civilisations, including most notably Ancient Greece, which refined the practice and even took it into Italy when the Mycenaean Greeks started to colonise the peninsula.

This proved to be a blessing for the early wine making industry as the Romans were particularly fond of the drink, and brought it with them when they conquered Western Europe. They planted the first vineyards in many Western European nations under their thrall, most notably France, which would, in later years, come to dominate the wine making industry.

Although the end of the Roman era and the moving in Europe into what many label the ‘Dark Ages’ saw most of civilised culture lost to the West for a thousand years, the art of wine making was one of the few remnants of Roman culture that thrived. This has been put down to the efforts of Catholic Monks, who grew vineyards to produce wine for the Catholic sacrament, and turned it into an art form for which they were indeed known throughout the Western World. The Benedictine Monks of France and Germany were particularly famous for this.

As the Greeks had increasingly brought the vine to Western Europe, the Western Europeans brought the vine to the America’s and the rest of the so called ‘new world’ in the global imperial period. Originally they were often brought by the Catholic Powers so that they would have wine for the Eucharist, however, the trade increasingly grew until in the 20^th Century, several international powers such as America, Argentina, Chile and Australia became almost as well known for their wines as the traditional wine makers of France, Italy and Spain.

At the Ideal Wine Company we recognise that wine has a long and noble history; it has survived the rise and fall of empires, it has survived the rise and fall of civilisations. It has even travelled over the seven seas into every corner of the globe. That’s why we know that wine will always survive, because it has survived and thrived to become the world’s most famous drink. 

Ideal Wine Company Brings You Our Wine of the Month: Chateau Petrus 2001

At the Ideal Wine Company we’re just like the rest of you; we all love our wine, however, we do tend to play favourites every once in a while, and we do tend to have our wines of the month. This is a bottle that for one month we feature prominently and we choose this wine based on the quality of the drink. We always strive to ensure that when we pick our wine of the month, we pick something that we know is going to excite your palette and have you coming back for more. We always make sure we pick something that is going to have you reeling

The bottle we have for you this month is one that we’re sure will set pulses racing; the bottle is the Chateau Petrus 2001. Originating form classic area Libournais in the typical wine making region of Bordeaux in France, the bottle is of the merlot grape and of the Pomerol appellation and has grown in the ten years it has been on the market to have developed a stellar reputation as a rich vintage that dances on the tongue and delights all those who drink it, meaning that they all come back for more.

On our website we define the Pomerol as exhibiting “more depth and richness than any other Pomerol I (the reviewer) has tasted. It’s deep saturated ruby/plum/purple colour is accompanied by a tight but promising bouquet of vanilla, cherry liqueur, melted liquorice, black currants and notions of truffles and earth.” The review goes on to elaborate that it is “rich full-bodied, and surprisingly thick as well as intense”. This wine is unbelievably complex; it’s variety of texture and flavour means that when you buy a bottle of this luxury product, you are not just buying a wine, you are buying an experience.

We advise you to cellar it for 3-6 years and then drink over an extended period of time. Like all the best wines, this is a vintage that you need to let age a little before you pop the cork, and trust us, it will be worth the wait when that first drop of complex drink hits your tongue. All the best things in life are, after all, truly worth the wait. As with everything else at the Ideal Wine Company, you are paying for quality and rarity when you buy from us and this bottle comes at you for the collector’s price of £1548, a steal when thinking of what this truly beautiful wine will do for your collection.

So what are you waiting for? You need to embrace the Chateau Petrus 2001 and find out for yourself why this Bordeaux product has come to capture the hearts and minds of wine enthusiasts the world over. We promise you that once you open up your first bottle, you’ll be coming back for more and more.