Annual Cognac Film Festival

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  When the weather is dreary and you want to go local, just put on your trenchcoat, sit at a Paris bar and order a “fine a l’eau.” What you will get is a very flavorful drink, rather like a single malt Scotch, and just possibly, reproving glances from friends who will tell you never to add water to cognac. A good place to enjoy this drink, by the way, is at Cognac itself. The town has a film noir festival each year at this time. I have attended the Cognac Film festival twice, and it’s a great place to see films, enjoy good food and tours of cognac houses, and rub elbows with film stars like Lauren Bacall and Michael York in a small town setting. This year, French rock star Johnny Hallyday was the marquee draw for the four-day festival, which will feature new films and television police films almost nonstop. The American entry for top honors was Wayne Kramer’s “The Cooler,” starring William Macy and Alec Baldwin. There was a night devoted to American television of this genre, featuring episodes from both “Law and Order” and “Homicide,” set respectively in New York and Baltimore. Hallyday of course recently made a fine film policier, “L’Homme du Train” (2001), costarring with Jean Rochefort. Further details on the Cognac Festival itself can be found on their website, www.festival.cognac.fr, and it’s not too soon to block in plans to attend next year’s festival. Past stars attending have also included Donald Pleasance, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jacqueline Bisset and Alain Delon. For 55 euros, you get a pass to everything over the four days. No, sorry, that doesn’t include all the cognac you can drink! It’s worth the easy drive down the A10 from Paris (take the Cognac exit, 450 kilometers). Cognac, the main city of the Charente department, is also just 130 kilometers from La Rochelle, and 115 from Bordeaux, making a tour of the region an attractive possibility. While in Cognac, you’ll want to visit at least one of the famous firms producing this world famous brandy. I’ve found Hennessey particularly welcoming, but pick your own favorite. Now for some basics. There are basically four grades of cognac, priced from reasonable to stratospheric. The V.S. ($25) contains by law spirits aged at least two and one-half years, but less than four and one-half. Then comes the V.S.O.P. ($40), between four and one-half and six and one-half years. The X.O. (or Napoleon), at $80, has spirits aged a minimum of six and one-half years, and the better cognac houses age their X.O. blends for twenty. Special blends, sometimes with decanters, can cost hundreds of dollars. Are more expensive cognacs worth it? The older the spirit, the smoother and more memorable it will be. There is a great quality difference between an X.O. from a quality supplier, and a glass of V.S. Cognac. Cognacs stop maturing when they taken from their casks, by the way. They do not age in the bottle. Unlike armagnac, cognac is twice distilled (which armagnac lovers will cite as proof that their spirit has more flavor). It is the product of three rather mediocre white grapes: ugni blanc, and in lesser amounts, colombard and carte blanche. There are six crus. These are Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies, Bons Bois, Fins Bois and Bois Ordinaires, grown in strictly defined regions in the Charente region surrounding the town of Cognac. (The word champagne in this context has nothing to do with the province of Champagne or its bubbly product that you had the night before. It comes from the Latin for “plain,” which describes the flat area where these grapes are grown.) Grande Champagne spirit is light and has a nice bouquet, and requires long aging. The area for this spirit surrounds the town of Segonzac. Next, Petite Champagne is grown in a semicircle surrounding Grande Champagne. It also has a floral bouquet. Borderies is the smallest cru. It is, for connoisseurs, smooth and fine, with a slight violet aroma and a somewhat nutty taste. The other three crus, Bons Bois, Fins Bois, and Bois Ordinaires, are found closer to the sea, and are faster maturing. They add body and flavor to the finer spirits in the blend. The closer to the sea, the rougher the spirit. By law “fine champagne cognac” is only made from Grande Champagne and Petite Champagne, with the former predominating. That sounds good, but it is not a guarantee of quality, of course. That depends upon the aging of the spirit. I would much rather have a forty year old Fin Bois than a V.S. Fine Champagne, and I suspect that you would as well. There are new ideas in cognac production. Hine is now producing vintage year cognacs, an old custom but a departure from recent practice. It supposes that a blend from one year is better than a multiyear blend, an unsustainable premise in my view. Cognac L & L has issued five single crus, and this is a good way to get to taste the spirits unblended. Hennessey has carried this one step further, with single blend cognacs (Le Peu, Camp Romain and Szambard). They have also issued a second Grande Champagne X.O., matching their classic X.O. Blend. Cognacs, like well aged wines from a great vintage, can be memorable. I’ll mention three that I particularly enjoyed. Two were in the Hennessey “Paradis” cellar in Cognac, where the spirits are stored in casks, still maturing. I had a Borderies from 1888, nearly a century later. It was strong, smooth and full of flavor, a superb spirit. Then I tasted a Bons Bois from 1864. That was a revelation. Somehow all of its early roughness had gone, and what was left was a very tasty, mouth-filling cognac, the finest spirit I ever tasted. Its grapes were budding when Lincoln was President, and it was still living well over a century later. I still remember it as the Lincoln Cognac,…
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