Visit of cooperage or the art of cooperage
Visit of a cooperage to discover the art of making a quality barrel, an essential element in making a good cognac or a good wine.
From October until the end of March of the following year, more than two thousand distilleries take action to distill the white wines produced in September, at the time of the harvest.
From the smallest distillery, equipped with a still of a few hectoliters of capacity, to the largest, equipped with 42 stills of 25 hectoliters of capacity each, all go day and night for several months to light the fire and then keep it in the Charentes.
From October until the end of March of the following year, more than two thousand distilleries take action to distill the white wines produced in September, at the time of the harvest.
From the smallest distillery, equipped with a still of a few hectoliters of capacity, to the largest, equipped with 42 stills of 25 hectoliters of capacity each, all go day and night for several months to light the fire and then keep it in the Charentes .
At the heart of the vineyard, in Petite and Grande Champagne, is the largest concentration of distilleries in the world.
You have to walk there on a winter morning, when the weather is cold and dry, to see in each hamlet the plume of steam rising above the buildings, a sign that a distillery is hidden there.
There, day and night, the master distiller slowly works to “pass” the wines to obtain a brouilli which, in turn distilled, will give Cognac brandy.
Enter a traditional distillery, chat with the distiller in the gentle heat released by the still, smell the aromas that escape from it.
It all starts with loading the cucurbit … The pot of the still! As soon as it is filled, the temperature rise begins.
Once the fire settings are finished, the still is already giving time to time. Several hours pass, then slowly the precious liquid will appear.
When the time comes, find out how he cuts heads, hearts and seconds … Nothing bad here, but a consummate art of selecting distillates, from start to finish of the toasting cycle.
Some years, the weather is capricious and tests the expertise of the distiller. Too good weather, the wines hold less well, the fire under the pot has mood swings … Too cold weather and the fires must be pushed to ensure the right temperature under the pot.
Ultimate luxury for the visitor, for a while, nice and warm, the distiller, as long as he is invited, will tell us some anecdotes (and some secrets) of the vineyard and explain to us the best way to distill, his own.
This is how the Bonnes Chauffes en Charentes season is living.
Visit of a cooperage to discover the art of making a quality barrel, an essential element in making a good cognac or a good wine.
Cognac Tasting Tour receives the “Vignobles et Découvertes” Label from the Ministries of Tourism and Agriculture
Participate for a day in manual harvesting in the land of cognac and, on the same day, discover the birth of Pineau des Charentes.
By subscribing to our newsletter you will receive our news from the Cognac and Charentes vineyards a few times a year.
In accordance with GDPR rules, you can cancel your registration at any time.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
pll_language | 1 year | The pll _language cookie is used by Polylang to remember the language selected by the user when returning to the website, and also to get the language information when not available in another way. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_gat | 1 minute | This cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic sites. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
CONSENT | 16 years 3 months 24 days 7 hours | These cookies are set via embedded youtube-videos. They register anonymous statistical data on for example how many times the video is displayed and what settings are used for playback.No sensitive data is collected unless you log in to your google account, in that case your choices are linked with your account, for example if you click “like” on a video. |
_ga | 2 years | The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors. |
_gid | 1 day | Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
fr | 3 months | Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. |
IDE | 1 year 24 days | Google DoubleClick IDE cookies are used to store information about how the user uses the website to present them with relevant ads and according to the user profile. |
test_cookie | 15 minutes | The test_cookie is set by doubleclick.net and is used to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. |
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | 5 months 27 days | A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. |
YSC | session | YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages. |
yt-remote-connected-devices | never | These cookies are set via embedded youtube-videos. |
yt-remote-device-id | never | These cookies are set via embedded youtube-videos. |
yt.innertube::nextId | never | These cookies are set via embedded youtube-videos. |
yt.innertube::requests | never | These cookies are set via embedded youtube-videos. |
_fbp | 3 months | This cookie is set by Facebook to display advertisements when either on Facebook or on a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising, after visiting the website. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
BkCheckoutSession | session | This cookie is set by the Booking kit. This cookie is used for operation of the shop. |
BkOpSession | 1 day | No description available. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional | 1 year | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". |
slimstat_tracking_code | 30 minutes | No description available. |
_gat_bkTracker | 1 minute | No description available. |