Hermitage, Grande Champagne Cognac, 1952 - 70cl

Hermitage Cognacs are renowned for their knowledge and supply of older cognacs. Their cognacs spend far longer in their barrels than average and this alone provides deeper, richer and more individual flavours. Most of the cognacs come from the top cru known as Grande Champagne.

The range of Hermitage Cognacs changes as and when old vintages run out or new ones are added. Although there are many vintages available, only the very finest are selected for sale under the Hermitage label.

Produced in the Grande Champagne, in the area around Bouteville, the landscape here is more undulating than that around the town of Cognac and the vines travel through several layers of porous chalk to find the underground water margins. This is one of the finest areas of vine production.

In most of the cognac growing area the vines are now machine picked but these would have been picked by hand when the vines were harvested. Handpicked grapes can often provide greater variation in final flavour.

This is a magnificent cognac from the 1950s and has matured with great finesse and elegance. There are delightful aromas of nutmeg, allspice and dark chocolate with citrus peel and kumquat.

There are a multitude of different flavours including cloves, black truffle, toast, walnuts, stewed plums, Clafoutis and Turkish Delight with a background of sweet spices and grapefruit peel, so typical from this area.

Distilled using the traditional double distillation method in an Alembic Charentais Cognac Still. The still would have been wood fired and the distiller would have watched over the process twenty-four hours a day. There is no reduction. The cognac has aged naturally in Limousin oak barrels.

This cognac has aged in cellars that are of medium dampness for more than 50 years. It was stored in old oak 250 litre barrels which had a medium toasting. We believe that the cognac may have been moved into different barrels during its maturation.