visting cognac area of france whitch cognac house to visit

emmet the rover

while i am there i would love to visit a cognac house and do a tour tasting ect but would only be able to manage one so what one to see.

i dont mind visiting a small or large but a decient bit of info would be nice from tour guide. im mostly a malt whisky drinker but like to try new things


is there anything that you would recommend seeing in the area while i am there?

Pat Dunne

I visited the Hennessy shop in the centre of Cognac down by the river a number of years ago. A very nice place with a massive selection, ranging for €15, to the stratosphere.

If I was in the region I would put it on my list.

Wobs

I visited cognac a number of years back and did the Hennesy tour. It was very good and there was a tasting at the end. From what I can remember all the big names are located in the centre of the town so I would say it would be pretty easy to tour one or two or just do a few tastings.

emmet the rover

thanks guys I guess ill just call into whatever one i meet first see if it suits

BeerNut

Tell us how you get on!

emmet the rover

you can expect a full report

gandalf

I went to Martell as there was a problem with the tour at Hennessy when we visited last May. The tour was excellent and because it is not as popular as the Hennessy one we only had another person on the tour so effectively had the guide to ourselves.

I like my whiskey as well and was firing questions at her based on this knowledge which she answered in some detail (probably because there were so few of us!). We paid for the tickets with a tasting and because of this shelled out for a bottle of the good stuff which needs to be replenished now!

I'd recommend it, the Martell site is around 3 minutes up the road from the Hennessy one. The wife did the Hennessy tour years ago and said it is well worth doing as well. Enjoy Cognac whatever tour you take. I still remember the amazing smell from the old building that used to store the barrels.

emmet the rover

martell it is

perhaps i should take it upon myself to be the offical boards cognac rep and visit them all :cool:

for reasearch you understand

gandalf

If you have the time do it. I would have loved to have checked them all out but we were on our way down to Bordeaux so we only had a few hours in Cognac.

Berty

I visited Hennessy and Martel 2 or 3 years ago and I preferred the Hennessy one because it's tour is in a city and you get a little boat across the river to the storage area. The smell is amazing and every so often there is a leaking barrell(Imagine the barrell you're thinking of 10 times bigger). There is normally a little table next to it with a few little disposable cups(tiny little things). They don't point them out but the poor person in me saw it and slinked away.

Martell is okay but you spend so much time on the damn train listening to stuff. The Hennessy one is a little nicer.

You should book though because you need a time and the English tour. We stayed in La Palymre in a mobile home/chalet where I stayed even as a child growing up.

We even went to the tours when I was a child as well and my father would get us to beg for extra free samples at the end of the tour. How innocent we were.

Wobs

Yeah my biggest memory is the smell as you walk through all the storage areas, Amazing! I also remember they had some seriously old barrels, can't remember exactly but probably from one of the first few years of production.