(Distillation · 10 Sep 2026)
Winter at the alembic
From November to March, the stills in the distillery never go cold. A night with the distiller.
Cognac must be distilled twice, in copper pot stills called alembics charentais, and by law before the 31st of March.
The first distillation turns wine at 9% into a cloudy brouillis at 28%.
The second, the bonne chauffe, takes twelve hours. Only the heart, around 70%, goes into the cask.
“The heart of the spirit runs clear for six hours. You learn to smell when it is about to end.”
The distiller cuts the heads and tails by smell and by the hydrometer, every hour, day and night.
Ours is Jean-Marc Faure, who has done it for thirty-one winters and sleeps beside the still.
In the morning, the whole village smells of warm pears.
