COGNAC – theliquor of

COGNAC – theliquor of the GodsIf you have a taste for history, the pint-sized town of Cognac, with its royal castleand famous distilleries, will satisfy your soul, says Janine Marsh.My dad used to say that the ancient godswould drink a small glass of Cognac whenthey finished feasting and needed to end withsomething special. And my dad wasn’t alonein his opinion. The great French writer VictorHugo also declared, ‘Cognac is the liquor ofthe gods.’So what is it about Cognac that makes itnot just fit for celestial beings but one of theworld’s most prestigious drinks? I headed toCognac, deep in the glorious countrysideof Charente, southwest France, to explorea fascinating world in which wet dogs, wetcellars and angels have something in commonand where a drop of the good stuff could setyou back a week’s wages!Cobbled streets and ancient houses in the old district of CognacCognacCognac lies around 30 miles inland fromthe Atlantic coast port of La Rochelle androughly the same distance from Bordeaux.It’s a classified town of ‘Art and History.’ Theold district has a village atmosphere, crisscrossedby hilly cobbled streets lined withshops, bars and medieval buildings, dominatedby a formidable-looking castle. It’s here thatFrance’s Renaissance King, Francois I, wasborn in 1494, some 50 years before the drinknamed after the town was invented, though hisformer home is now a distillery.Some say that the town’s most famous exportwas born in the 15th century when cannywine merchants distilled their product to savefreight charges on wine exports to Englandand Holland – just add water, they reasoned– instant wine! But the truth is that Dutchtraders turned to distillation to preserve thewine for the long journey home. They called itbrandwijn, burnt wine, and the term eventuallybecame brandy.Those early Dutch traders may have inventedthe process, but local French winemakerstook the primitive distillation process further,perfecting the double distillation method,resulting in a divine eau de vie.Red carpet treatment at Remy Martin’s Historical HouseFabulous Cognac tasting at Remy Martin14 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 15