Quick Video Visit of Baron Otard Cognac House in Cognac

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsxYQbkifYw&w=560&h=315]

Cognac is the Favorite Drink of Democrats in the USA according to Recent Research

According to a recent article by Thomas Edsall published in the New York Times Democrats and Republicans differ not only in their political views, but also their day-to-day consumption preferences. The author used the results from a research carried out by National Media, a media research firm in the USA.  This firm reviewed leanings of consumers for TV channels, cars, Media, internet sites, favorite restaurants, and favorite alcoholic drinks.

These results are quite surprising as it shows what opposes partisans:

1)  Fox News is the most favored by Republicans while the least by Democrats. The Washington is the favorite of Democrats while the least favored by Republicans.

2) Democrats rave about hybrid cars while Republicans' favorite car is the Land/Range Rover.

3) And finally, partisan patterns in the consumption of alcohol is even more bipolar. Cognac is the most favored drink by the Democrats while the least by Republicans. Light beers are the favorite alcoholic drinks of Republicans.

This surprising skew perhaps can be explained by the fact that the majority of cognac consumers in the USA are African Americans and that this ethnicity is overwelmingly voting for the Democratic candidates. However, not all democrats are African Americans and hence this remains an interesting statistic.

National Media Chart in 2012

source: www.nytimes.com  by THOMAS B. EDSALL

Creative Design and Futur Heritage #1 by Cognac Remy Martin

FUTUR HÉRITAGE # 1
Students from two design schools in Europe, l’École Nationale des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art (ENSAAMA) in Paris and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (CSMCAD) in London were invited by the House of Rémy Martin in Cognac to create new products to enhance consumers’ art of tasting.
The results were eight projects reflecting on the heritage and essence of the product as well as projecting on the future generation of aesthetics, hence the event was cleverly named ‘Futur Héritage’. Designed ranged from perfume-like miniature bottles and carafe-shaped chocolate candy to cognac ring glasses and bottled cognac jewelry. Our two favorite pieces were designed by Ségolène Girard (ENSAAMA, Paris) & Weiche Wu (CSMCAD, London): (1) they reinterpreted the iconic Baccarat bottle of Louis XIII  and it named ‘King’s Ceremony’, and (2) they created a 'fun' aroma sampler named ‘The Essence of Rémy Martin’.

King’s Ceremony
The new design of Louis XIII display creates an elegant ceremony to taste the cognac. The serving tools is a metaphor to the ritual of the cognac masters used to taste and prepare cognacs for blending. To extract an eau-de-vie from a cask, the cellar master uses a pipette in a very expert and fascinating gesture. The same delicate tool is used to serve to each guest the limited volume.

Remy Martin Louis XIII Futur Heritage

Louis XIII Futur Heritage for Remy Martin with glass

The Essence of Rémy Martin
Master the senses of cognac. The Rémy Martin Cognac Taste Kit helps people experience the different ages of the cognac, and identify the tastes and aromas like a connoisseur.

Remy Martin Essence Futur Heritage

Cognac Remy Martin Essence Futur Heritage

www.remy.com
Photo: source: www.charentelibre.com
Source news: www.lenversdubar.com
Source photos and news: www.wuweiche.com

Remy Martin Limited Edition Cognac VSOP for the Cannes' Film Festival May 22nd to 26th 2012

Cognac maker Rémy Martin has released a limited edition VSOP bottle for the Cannes Film Festival meant to evoke the golden age of cinema.

As the official sponsor of perhaps the most glamorous of film festivals, the French spirit maker has launched a new collector’s series called Gold and Light for the 65th edition of Cannes.

Cognac Paradis Remy Marting Limited Edition VSOP Cannes' Film Festival 2012.
In addition to being available at the festival itself, the classic 1-liter bottle will be sold exclusively at some of the biggest airports in the world, including Paris Charles de Gaulle, Nice, Oslo, Dubai, Beirut, New Delhi, Moscow, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York JFK.

The Limited Edition Cannes Festival 2012 VSOP is available in three formats:
 -the Collector’s 1
-liter Classic Format, 55€
-1.5 Magnum, 200€
-3L Jeroboam Format, 500€

Rémy Cointreau is the official sponsor of the Cannes Film Festival.

Source: http://pursuitist.com/epicurean/remy-martin-limited-edition-cognac-for-cannes/#ixzz1utiph7Yn

HERE IS LAST YEAR VIDEO, FOR REMY MARTIN' SPONSORING OF 2011 CANNES' FILM FESTIVAL:

Why do Cognac Houses Have Sub-Brands of Cognac?

In a previous post, I was commenting on how common it is for Cognac Houses to have multiple brands of cognac. In marketing & Brand Management, this is called the multibrands strategy. There are many reasons for this, here are a few:

As the company grows they start being distributed everywhere and they often have exclusive agreement for territories. Along with this, they make new and wider relationships, and they cannot satisfy the opportunities offered through these new distributor relationship in the same areas where they have already agreements. Hence, the need/ opportunity to develop sub-brands.
Also as the business grows they may acquire other houses along the way and this explains the multi-brands.
They may want to cover a wider target market and thus require multiple brands.
It may be a competitiveness plan, such as based on cost leadership. No brands does it all.

This multiple cognac brands situation is not common among the ‘big four’ cognac houses. Or rather not anymore, since Hennessy let go Cognac Davidoff last January 2011 to its competitor Thomas Hine & Co. Davidoff is a brand mostly associated with cigars. Founded by the Davidoff’s family when they moved to Geneva Switzerland in 1911, and brought to an international fame by Zino Davidoff (son).

Cognac Paradis Cognac Davidoff

Davidoff is a brand owned by the The Oettinger Davidoff Group whose business is mostly into cigars and managing licenses of its trade name to specialized producer. The way I look at it it makes more sense that Cognac Davidoff be produced by someone else than Hennessy. Hennessy should not be tied to any other cognac brands and stand alone. They do not need to and they should not. That is not to say that this is also not true for Hine, but it makes more sense that Hine be in charge of this. Hine is a much smaller house of cognac than Hennessy, and it makes more sense that Davidoff be a small special offspring of Hine rather than Hennessy. Hine is such a distinguished cognac House, everything about it is ‘neat’!

www.zinodavidoff.com

The Calvagnacs: The Gallic Version of a Scottish Whisky Tour

For many decades people have visited France for wine tastings or winery tours of Bordeaux, Burgundy, etc...  Now, this has become an international hobby and even the focus of a vacation.

More unique has been people touring spirits production regions, with Scotland and the Bourbon's trail leading the way in this matter. However, I have been meeting or directing an increasing number of people to what I would call "The Calvagnacs' Trail" that is the Gallic version of a Scottish whisky distillery tour = Calvados + Cognac + Armagnac. These trails are often visited separately but I think it makes sense to organize to tour them all at once because of the local proximity of all things in France.  It takes about 10 hours of driving from the north to the south of France. I am not saying you can do the Calvagnacs' trail in one day but you could do it if well organized in 4 days and up.

I am not sure of any enterprises doing this already but it would be a fun thing, as we see people worldwide growing interest for distillation and spirits.

For further reading and entertainment I stumbled across this very nice article in the Washington Post which relates this matter.

Washington Post, Paul Abercrombie, Published: May 4 2012,  "France’s cognac country: So much to drink in". http://tinyurl.com/76hcn32

Cognac Paradis - The Calvagnacs: Calvados Cognac and Armagnac Maps

Sources:
map: www.calvados-lauriston.com
map: www.thecognac.fr
map: www.armagnac.fr

Winners of the 2012 ExperienceCognac.com Essay and Cocktail Competition

I feel I know a lot about cognac. Do you? How would I know?
Let's take the quiz!
The Cognac Trade Board (BNIC) has a cognac website that is outstanding www.cognac.fr
It allows you to learn and better understand the details behind the production, history, mixology, and uniqueness of Cognac. They also offer a quiz to test your knowledge on the subject.
http://www.experiencecognac.com/quiz.php
This quiz had a competition for bartenders only that just ended! The ExperienceCognac.com Essay and Cocktail Competition winners were eligible for the Grand Prize* - a Scholarship to the BAR 5-Day Program and a free trip to the region to experience Cognac in person.

Five bartenders have been chosen to compete in the live finals to be held May 15th in New York City during the Manhattan Cocktail Classic. Benjamin Augustine from Sepia Restaurant in Chicago, Brian Matthys from Le Bernardin in New York City, Joshua Pearson from Sepia Restaurant in Chicago, and Ezra Star from Drink in Boston will compete in a live cocktail competition for a chance to win a trip to Cognac, France to become a certified Cognac Connoisseur.

This competition was designed by six leading spirits and cocktails experts: Steve Olson, Andy Seymour, David Wondrich, F. Paul Pacult, Doug Frost, and Dale DeGroff. Experience Cognac leads bartenders on an exploration of Cognac and also offers tips, cocktail recipes and food pairing suggestions.

Follow and find out more at:
www.experiencecognac.com
www.Facebook.com/CognacManiac
http://goodspiritsnews.wordpress.com