Cognac is among the best brandies available in the market. The brandy is produced in Cognac, a French commune, so it is named after the town. You can purchase it in brick and mortar shops and online stores. Before buying it from a store like cwspirits.com, you might want to know some things about cognac to tell your loved ones who share a drink with you.
Cognac Is Burned Wine
The word ‘brandy’ is short for brandywine, and it came from the Dutch phrase ‘gebrande wijn’ that means ‘burned wine’. Brandy refers to grape spirits that are produced from distilled wine. Cognac is the best-known kind of brandy out there. The ‘Ugni Blanc’ grape is the raw material for almost every cognac brandy.
Napoleon Used Cognac
It is believed that Napoleon Bonaparte gave rations of cognac to soldiers in his artillery. His nephew, Napoleon III of France entitled the Courvoisier® brand “Official Supplier to the Imperial Court.” Suffice to say, Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew liked the cognac of that brand enough.
There is even a Courvoisier® Napoleon Cognac, named after the emperor to mark his affection for the brand.
James Bond Also Used It
We know for a fact that the fictional character of James Bond, also known as ‘007’, loved women, cars, and many other things. Do you know that he also loved the brandy? He used it not just to drink, but even to set a bad guy (Mr. Kidd) on fire in the movie ‘Diamonds Are Forever’.
Producers of Bond movies make 007 use only the best product in each category, whether it is a mobile phone or brandy. Maybe this explains why cognac is Bond’s first written drink. It is shown in the unofficial James Bond film, 1967’s ‘Casino Royale’. The 1967 version of Casino Royale may not be the first James Bond movie, but it is based on the first-ever written 007 character.
In 1964’s ‘Gold Finger’, Sean Connery’s 007 says, “I’d say it was a 30 year old finé indifferently blended Sir,……..with an overdose of Bon Bois.” It is a more popular scene involving cognac than the one in the first Casino Royale.
It Is Not Easy To Find Cognac In France
Cognac cannot be found in great quantities in France because the nation exports the majority of the brandy to the US and Asian countries. That is an oddity considering that it is made in France.