Cognac - one of the most "noble" hard alcoholic beverages. It can be drunk not in a volley, and small drinks to experience all nuances of taste. In the production technology of cognac there is a set of subtleties.
Many people in the former Soviet Union still perceive cognac as something between vodka and tincture on herbs. However there are also real judges of this noble drink. Not for nothing say that the ability to enjoy its taste increases in proportion to age. And on shelves in shops it is more and more types of cognacs.
However, actually considerable part of products which is sold in shops a baking plate by the name "cognac" today, in fact, is brandy. The fact is that around the world cognac is called the alcoholic drink produced from the grapes which are grown up only in one of six areas of the French province Cognac located around the city of the same name.
In France there is a strict legislation regulating process of the cognac industry, beginning from a grade of grapes and borders of field of its cultivation before pouring of noble drink in bottles.
So it real cognac?
For the cognac industry it is admissible to use only eight white grades of grapes, basic of which - "Uni Blanc". After collecting, grapes are wrung out and ferment the turned-out juice. On average on process four weeks leave. Then there is a process of double distillation by a "sharantsky" method. The received distillate – "life water" - is spilled in barrels from a limuzensky oak and maintained two years in cellars. There, in a special microclimate, at a constant temperature of 150 degrees Celsius and humidity to 950C, cognac spirits interact with wood, enriching the taste and aroma. For many years a part of alcohol evaporates through a time in wood barrels. This loss is romantically called "a share of angels". A final production phase of cognac is blending - it is process of mixing of the cognac spirits various on age, a harvest, area, a grapes grade, etc., for receiving a blend (taste and aroma), cognac, characteristic of the concrete brand. If at the label of a bottle of cognac there is a marking "endurance of 5 years" it means that five years - the minimum age of this cognac. At the same time at a blend, as a rule, there are also older alcohols. Besides, many cognac houses increase age of a cognac spirit in the cognacs for increase in their status. For example, V.S. – do three-year-old, V.S.O.P. – five- or six-year-old, and X.O. – eight- or ten-year-old.
Whether production of cognac in house conditions is possible?
Considering all aforesaid, it becomes obvious that to make cognac in house conditions it is impracticable. Cognac is a distillation product of grape spirits, infused in a special way, and conditions for this purpose can't be provided out of industrial production. On the Internet it is possible to meet recipes of "home-made cognac", however all of them come down, as a rule, to repainting of vodka or moonshine by means of tea and their aromatization by vanillin or cinnamon. These mixes usually don't insist. The similar products, of course, have the right for existence, however it not only has no relation to actually cognac, but also doesn't remind it either taste, or a smell.