Beloved by kings and queens, hip-hop legends and cocktail historians, Cognac is the worldâs best-known, grape-based spirit. Luxurious and mahogany-gorgeous in the glass, it also plays well with other ingredients as a cocktail base.
However, with some exceptions, the spirit itself has long tilted toward consistency over diversity.
âIf you take the âbig fourâ [Courvoisier, Hennessy, Martell, Remy Martin], they want to recreate the same consumption experience every time,â says Max von Olfers, who runs the website Cognac Expert with his sister, Sophie.
âThe XO of Hennessy has to be same taste, structure and color for a long time period, and that can only be accomplished by controlling the blending and [using] additives and coloring and so on,â he says. âThese products are so mainstream because consumers expect them to taste the same every time.â

But evolution is underway. Many smaller Cognac producers now farm organically, reject additives and embrace variation in vintages, be it through single-vintage bottlings or blending. Some use grapes beyond Cognacâs workhorse, Ugni Blanc, and experiment with various types of wood in aging. And, perhaps most vital, many explore new ways to commit to sustainability.
Recent History
Like many European wine regions, contemporary Cognac production was shaped by the phylloxera outbreak in the late 19th century.
In its aftermath, Cognac producers placed almost all of their focus on a dependable, high-acid grape variety: Ugni Blanc. To never again experience near-total crop loss, they began a chemical romance with herbicides and pesticides to help a struggling industry fight its way back to some stability.
âPost-phylloxera, there was an urgency to get back on track, which is strange because it never got back on track,â says Guillaume Lamy, vice president of the Cognac producer Maison Ferrand.
âItâs simple math,â he says. âThe vineyards in Cognac before phylloxera were around 263,000 hectares [650,000 acres]. Today, itâs 75,000 hectares [about 185,000 acres]⊠Between 1610 and 2020, a bunch of things happened in Cognac, and they canât be summed up in 20 pages.â
The pages he refers to are the âCahier des Charges,â appellation dâOrigine contrĂŽlĂ©e (AOC) laws that govern production of the spirit.
Enacted in 1936, the AOC dictates what grape varieties can be used and where they may be grown, the type of stills and barrels approved in production, the allowable additions of boise for color, sugar for flavor, and alcohol by volume (abv).

While the regulations have their purpose, some producers worry that they discourage individuality.
Ferrandâs Renegade Barrel, for example, is aged in both French oak and chestnut wood. Because chestnut is not permitted by the current laws, the spirit must be labeled an eau de vie, rather than a Cognac.
Organic Expansion
âPeople just see this finished product, but this all starts in the field amongst the vines,â says Franky Marshall, a bartender and certified Cognac educator. âThis comes down to a lot of small farmers who provide the wines for larger producers.â
Currently, 1% of Cognacâs producers are certified organic, according to estimates from the Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac (BNIC), the French group of winemakers and merchants that represents the Cognac industry. The organization believes many others have similar eco-conscious production methods without certification.
Most of the bigger Cognac houses have always needed more grapes than they can grow. As a result, conventionally farmed grapes often get mixed with organic offerings from smaller growers, which nullifies that work that went into the latter fruit.
âWe estimate that only about 20% of organically farmed Cognac ends up in an organically labeled bottle, as many producers sell in bulk to the four big houses, who do not yet recognize the interest of the [organic] label,â says Pascal Rousteau, president of VitiBio, Cognacâs 23-year-old association of organic farmers.

All Cognac producers must contend with the changing climate that includes early frosts, hailstorms, intense summers and late-season droughts.
âAs in all regions in France, Europe and the world, climate change has had an impact on the Cognac winegrowing region,â says Vincent Lang, director of the technical and sustainable development department of the BNIC. âWe started taking action several years ago. We are confident about the future, but, like all wine-producing and agricultural industries, we are working hard to adapt to the many climate, economic, technological and societal changes we face.â
Some of that work includes encouraging the regionâs nearly 2,400 growers and producers to re-embrace creative soil management in lieu of chemical weed killers, says Lang.
Ambitious, long-term projects have also launched, like a region-wide adaptation of High Environmental Value (HEV) certification, which focuses on issues like biodiversity, plant protection, fertilizer management and water conservation.
âLast year, for the first time, we harvested at a large scale new varieties of vines resistant to downy mildew and powdery mildew,â says Lang. âThose new varieties should be officially registered in 2022 and progressively deployed in the Cognac vineyard[s].â
Big brands like Hennessy have joined the effort, vowing to stop the use of herbicides on its own estate by 2023, and from contract growers by 2028. Cognac house Martell has banned the use of the controversial herbicide glyphosate, while Rémy Martin has encouraged hundreds of its growers to obtain HEV certification.
‘Converting Backâ
Meanwhile, smaller producers are making big changes.
âI think good words for it would be âconverting backâ to agriculture as it was thousands of years ago,â says Amy Pasquet, co-manager of Jean-Luc Pasquet Cognac, of the companyâs move toward organic agriculture.
Most Cognac producers were once what we would call âorganic,â says Pasquet, because âchemically synthesized products didnât appear until after the Second World War. It was all done in this old way.â
Her husbandâs father, Jean-Luc, began to convert the labelâs 34 acres of Ugni Blanc vines in Grand Champagne to organic in 1993. The area has been used for Cognac grape-growing since the early 18th century.

In the latter part of the 20th century, France became the second-highest consumer of agricultural pesticides to stabilize yields and production.
To counteract the resulting pollution and create more distinctive agricultural products, certain grower-producers have changed their methods. These include Pasquet, Dudognon, Decroix Cognac Vivant, G&A Domaine De Marais, Mery Melrose, Guy Pinard & Fils, and Brard Blanchard. Négociant producers that have adopted such practices include Park, Grosperrin, Peyrat, Leopols Gourmel and Prunier.
In 2006, fourth-generation Cognac producer Francoise Mery, of Mery Melrose, converted his family vineyards to organic and began to ferment grapes via natural yeast.
âIn the beginning, we didnât know if thereâd be interest in organic spirits,â says Mery. âNow, more and more organic shops have a spirits section. Itâs logical. If people are concerned about organic vegetables and food and wine, they will buy organic spirits as well.”
His efforts werenât immediately met with local acceptance.
âThe neighbors donât look at you very nicely because, you know, youâre different,â he says. âBut itâs funny because people who live in rural areas, they should be concerned with organic [farming] because they live beside [the land].â
âIf we grow and expand, we wonât be able to do the same quality. We are losing our soul then.” âPierre Buraud, co-owner, Dudognon Cognac
Dudognon, which produces 18,000 bottles of organic Cognac per year, has long been committed to environmental sustainability. Distillers use firepower instead of gas for their stills, and they carefully source the wood for their barrels.
âEvery year, we go to see a wood cutter and he cuts the oak for us,â says Pierre Buraud, who co-owns Dudognon with his parents, Claudine and Gerald. âWe age and cure the wood three to five years and then we bring it to our barrel maker, so we are sure of the origin and quality of wood, and its maturity.â
These practices eliminate the need for additives like sugar and caramel, says Buraud.
âWe know we will and can age young eau de vie and not add any color or additive,â he says. âWe choose this way of working. We could expand and buy more wine or sell more Cognac, but we donât want to. If we grow and expand, we wonât be able to do the same quality. We are losing our soul then.”
Benedict Hardy, the fifth-generation distiller at Hardy Cognac, has a similar outlook. In 2015, she added an organic Cognac to her familyâs line.
âItâs very drastic. Itâs a crusade!â says Hardy.
âIf you make that decision, you canât put the organic sticker on a bottle for about 10 years,â says Hardy, who notes that you canât use herbicides or pesticides during that period. âEverything is different. The barrels are different. The pumps and hoses have to be cleaned up completely. When we bottle, we have inspectors. Itâs not as easy as it seems.â
Organic Cognac sales represent just 3% of the labelâs profits, but, for Hardy, itâs an important precedent.
âWe see a little growth every year,â she says. âNot spectacular, but weâre opening new markets slowly, but surely. For the French, food is very important to us. We need to lead by what we produce. If we donât overproduce, we wonât need as much pesticide and herbicide.
âMore is not always good,â she says. âSometimes, less is better.â
The Future of Cognac
Smaller operations experiment in other ways, too.
âAs far as grape diversity goes, I do believe that organic growers who bottle their production are likely to plant old varietals like the Folle Blanche, Colombard or Montils, as many members have these types of vines,â says Rousteau.
Pasquet released its first 100% Folle Blanche in 2020. Buraud also makes a 100% Folle Blanche and grows grapes like Montils as well as Ugni Blanc.
âAround the â30s, people started to quit Folle Blanche because itâs tricky and difficult to grow,â says Buraud. âFor many years, the Folle Blanche almost disappeared. One day, my grandfather was making the eau de vie of his grandfather and remembering and thinking that something was different. Something was missing. And he realized, the Folle Blanche was missing.
âThatâs why we decide to grow it back. We first replanted it in 1999. In 2009, it was the first year we were able to sell it.â

The desire to connect Cognacâs history with its future led Sophie and Max von Olfers, the siblings behind the Cognac Expert website, to create their own label, Sophie & Max Seleccion. They source and curate bottles from small, family-owned producers and sell them on their website.
Theyâre interested in telling the stories behind each bottle, Max says. âWhatâs the story behind it? Whose family made it? When was it created? Was the sun present that year? What happened during this vintage? Is it blended?â
The family has farmed the area for generations. Max plans to plant his own vines next year. In the meantime, heâs committed to diversifying both the market and perceptions of Cognac.
âIs a Cognac with additives directly bad? No,â he says. âBut on other hand, Iâve had Cognacs that are quite young with caramel and sugar. They are dark, but sweet on the tongue and burn on the end.
âIt doesnât make sense. The nature of vintage is every year it will taste very different. Itâs about identity.â