Some precisions about the economic organisation of the area

The complete process is long, and involves a chain of people, each bringing his know-how and his touch: Cognacs, more than any other beverage, are the product of a whole region...and that gives them "something special".

Understanding the organisation of the area will give you a different view on the making of the product. Firstly, the vocabulary may be helpful…

Basically, if we follow the grapes:

• The wines are produced by viticulteurs (wine-makers), but being a wine maker does not mean that one has the equipment to distil
• The wines are distilled into eaux de vie (new spirits) …by distillateurs or bouilleurs (distillers; bouillir means boiling in French)… but among distillers, you will find « bouilleurs de profession » and « bouilleurs de cru».
  

• The bouilleurs de profession distil wines and sell the eaux de vie to the négociants or maisons de négoce, the Cognac merchants. Most of the times, the bouilleurs de profession distil wines that they have not produced themselves. They may either buy the wines and then sell the eaux de vie, or act as subcontractors, distilling wines that belong to the négociants.
• The bouilleurs de cru distil their own wines, and sell the eaux de vies either to the negociants or directly if they produce their own cognacs. But sometimes, they do not own any alambic, they have their wine distilled, and take back the eaux de vie to sell them.

As one would expect, a “bouilleur de profession” runs usually more alembics in his distillery than a bouilleur de crus does. Anyhow, even the “big ones” are smaller units than you could imagine.

• The courtiers (brokers) are driving back and forth across the vineyards to meet the bouilleurs, smell and taste the spirits (new make spirits as well as older spirits that have spent a few years in casks) , select the samples and propose them to the merchants.
  

• the négociants , the merchants at the top of the golden pyramid purchase the new-make or older spirits, age them in their cellars, elaborate blends (or not) and create Cognacs

I said "basically".This image is still a simple one compared to realty, because the roles are not so strictly separated.

In fact, every actor is more or less linked to the others: some wine-makers distil and sell their wines; some bouilleurs de profession are also wine – makers and bouilleur de crus; some bouilleurs de crus elaborate their own cognacs; some negociants are just intermediaries: they just buy and sell; other negociants also own vineyards, a number of them distil wines…

Therefore, the whole thing is quite confusing and it is difficult to build a real image of what is going on exactly in Cognac.

You can easilly imagine that the relationships and the balance of powers inside this network are also complex.

I will certainly deal with that issue more than once in my “Cognac magazine” section...