No hip-hop bling for France’s oldest Brandy

Armagnac has been long overshadowed by France’s other grape-distilled brandy, Cognac. While Cognac has an image of elegance and sophistication (along with elevated status among the young and urban, thanks to its mention in some hit hip-hop songs), Armagnac has been saddled with what The New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov defined as a “hick cousin” label–unsophisticated and less worldly.

Although the Charente region where Cognac is produced and the Armagnac region both lie in southwestern France, and are less than 100 miles apart, there is a world of difference between the two. Cognac distillers, with easy access to Bordeaux by the well-traveled Garonne and Charente Rivers, were able early on to sell their brandy to British and Dutch traders who used the alcohol to fortify wine before transport. Unfortunately for the Armagnac traders, getting their brandy to Bordeaux, and then on to northern Europe, was not so easy.  They needed to first transport large barrels by land over rough roads and then on rivers that sometimes were so low that boats could not pass.

When transport improved in the 19th century the Armagnac producers began to make inroads in the brandy market, but the phylloxera epidemic that struck France in the late 1870s dealt it, like all French wine regions, almost a fatal blow.

Apart from history and Cognac’s marketing muscle that is immediately apparent in any glossy lifestyle magazine targeted towards men, the main difference between the two is that Armagnac is made from grapes grown in a region of sandy soil and limestone, and that is distilled once in a continuous alambic Armagnacais column still, developed in the early 1800s as a low-cost distillation method. Cognac’s origins are from chalky soil, and it is pot-stilled with a double distillation. Without getting into the technical details, Armagnac’s single distillation gives it more time to age in casks made from local black oak and helps it to develop a more subtle, complex character because less of the secondary components produced during the distillation are removed, Almost 500 different volatile components have been detected in Armagnac, and it’s believed that high-quality Armagnac has more aroma components than any other type of brandy.

Even though Armagnac, which dates from the mid-14th century, had at least a century and a half jump on Cognac, which dates from the late 16th century, it has always been playing catch up. Sales statistics bear this out: 148.2 million bottles of Cognac were sold in 2008, against just 6.6 million bottles of Armagnac. Currently, around 95% of Cognac is exported, while less than 50% of Armagnac is sold outside of France.

Changing alcohol consumption trends, and increasingly high alcohol taxes, have even affected Armagnac sales in its native land.  Young French people evidently believe that it’s more trendy to order a whiskey in a bar rather than French brandy or even the country’s traditional drinks of anis and pastis. Strict driving legislation forces restaurant diners, who have one or two glasses of wine with their meal, to choose between an aperitif and a brandy digestif (and the aperitif usually wins out).

Buying oak barrels and storing Armagnac for the 10 or more years needed to age quality Armagnac is a serious investment, and no guarantee that there will be a market for the product when it’s ready to sell. Children of Armagnac producers have career options and opportunities that were not available to their parents, and many have chosen not to work the land. Those that do stay often choose to remove their Armagnac vines to plant corn, soy beans, sunflowers and other crops that require less effort and provide a more immediate return on their investment, or to raise livestock.

Increasing exports seems like a good strategy for Armagnac, and some inroads have been made in China and Russia. Sébastien Lacroix, Director of the BNIA (the Bureau National Interprofessionnel de l’Armagnac, an organization under the French Ministries of Agriculture and Finance that is responsible for controlling the quality of Armagnac, and that coordinates research on its production, distillation and aging, as well as providing technical assistance and marketing advice), says that more such effort is needed to reach consumers in new markets.

Lacroix says that the BNIA is working on multiple fronts to increase and expand the Armagnac market. The number one objective is to decrease high Armagnac inventories, which push down the price, from the current ten-year stock to five-to-six years.

It also hopes to better define and communicate to consumers how the range of Armagnacs can be used in different situations. Much as olive oil producers did in the 1990s, when they educated the public on how low-cost oils should be used for cooking, while higher-priced, extra-virgin oils were for delicate seasoning of vegetables, the Armagnac producers need to explain how one-to-two-year-old Armagnac can be used in a cocktail or for flambeing in the kitchen, and how 10-year, 15-year or 25-year-old Armagnac should be kept for special occasions and shared with friends. And to feed those anticipated sales, the BNIA hopes to assist producers in just about doubling Armagnac production over the next 12 years, and, at the same time, better segmenting the increased production to better suit individual market taste and demand.

Cognac sales in the US have recently increased because some hip-hop singers have embraced the brandy in the same manner that they’ve made certain automotive, alcohol, clothing and shoe brands status symbols for young people. Afro-Americans now account for an estimated 60-80% of Cognac sales there.

“Sippin some yak” (street vernacular for drinking Cognac) is a popular refrain in numerous hip-hop songs, and a video made by American hip-hop musician Busta Rhymes, “Pass the Courvoisier,” is credited with giving a double-digit boost to US sales of the Cognac in 2002. Allied Domecq, the then parent company of the 160-year-old Courvoisier brand, tried to capitalize on its hip-hop sales by launching a high-fashion clothing line, Atelier Courvoisier, in 2004.

Unfortunately, Allied Domecq discovered that it was difficult to get people to buy Courvoisier-branded luxury garments, and Atelier Courvoisier is now consigned to business school case studies on the dangers of brand extension. Allied Domecq was acquired in 2005 by Pernod Ricard and the Courvoisier brand was transferred in January 2006 to the consumer brands company Fortune Brands.

Armagnac does not have the brand weight to attract hip-hop singers, and it’s probably for the best. The danger of a hip-hop sales pop was made clear in a revelation by Busta Rhymes’ spokesman that “Busta actually drinks Hennessy.” So much for brand loyalty.

Rather than plugging Armagnac with some sort of ode to France’s oldest brandy, the BNIA would undoubtedly be better off continuing with its more traditional approach to marketing. If Armagnac has evolved over six centuries from something akin to alchemy, with supposed medicinal qualities ranging from raising the dead to energizing one’s libido, to take its place as one of the world’s finest brandies, it’s by staying true to its rustic Gascon roots.

Staying off of billboards and out of glossy magazine advertisements, and not being part of a corporate brand portfolio, does seem to have kept Armagnac a distinctive brandy whose often exceptional flavors and assertive qualities place it apart from the consistently uniform products favored by most consumers. Preserving that unique Armagnac tradition, while continuing to grow internationally so that more people from outside of the region can experience it, appears to be, in this case, the elixir of truth.

Tagged as: Armagnac, Gascony