This month’s Whisky Club Release is Cognac Cask finish at 54%abv. The cask was originally coopered in France where it was used to mature Cognac but, other than that, we had little information about it when it arrived at the distillery.

The production of Cognac is carefully protected, so even though we don’t know the exact producer this cask came from, we do know a lot about the spirit that was matured in the cask - and even the production of the cask itself.

Cognac is a sub-category of brandy and can therefore trace its origins to the 17th century when wine merchants, worried the wine would spoil during transport, started distilling it. The Dutch term for this was Brandewijn (burnt wine), which later became Brandy Wine, then simply Brandy.

For a brandy to be called a Cognac however, it must first be made in one of six sub-regions (crus) that surround the town of Cognac (just North of Bordeaux ). As well as this, the base wine must be made using a majority of a grape type called Ugni Blanc (that also must be grown in a specific region), which is renowned for creating quite a thin, highly acidic style of wine. This wine is then double distilled through pot stills using a direct flame heat source and a worm tub condenser - all of which are techniques that favour the creation of a heavier more highly characterful spirit.

The spirit must then be aged in oak casks for a minimum of two years (although usually much longer) before it can be called Cognac. This ageing process takes place either casks made from either Quercus petraea or Quercus robur (different varieties of Oak which when grown in France are collectively known as 'French Oak') which has been grown in either Troncais (renown for producing a fine-grained oak) or Limousin (known for producing a coarser grained wood).