OK, it's not really wine, but I am going to write about cognac and its origins, after all, it started with the wine and I will tell you how that happened... Cognac is the name of a small port town on the Charente river in France, just north of the city of Bordeaux. The area around this town has become world famous for the production of fine French brandy which has taken the name of the town of Cognac as its own.

In the 15th century, English, Dutch and Scandinavian traders came to the Cognac region to buy salt, they so enjoyed the wine from that region that they brought it home with them, alas, they found that the wine often broke down during the journey! The resourceful French merchants worked hard at fixing the problem. To prevent spoilage and save on storage space, they came up with a clever solution: distil the wine, transport it and then add water when serving to reconstitute the product, nine barrels concentrated into one became known as Brandy-wine, the term is derived from the Dutch "brandywijn" and means burnt wine.

This brandy-wine was originally crystal clear in appearance until the 17th century when France went to war and the liquid was stored in small oak barrels for several years. Surprise! When those barrels were punched and brandy drawn they found it had taken on color, was much better tasting and much smoother. The producers then started experimenting with different size barrels, different oak provenance and different blends of grapes.