Frapin VSOP Cognac Grand Champagne

The Frapin family can trace its winegrowing and distilling in Cognac back to 1270, and the house is still owned by its descendants — the Cointreau family, direct descendants of Pierre Frapin, took over the running of the business in 1984, and the current chief executive is the twenty-first generation. Patrice Piveteau is the cellar master.

Everything comes from 240 hectares of estate vineyard, all of it in Grande Champagne, the finest of the Cognac crus, planted at 3,000 vines to the hectare and farmed lutte raisonnée. That single-estate, single-cru position is rare at this level.

The method is built on flavour at every stage. Ugni Blanc is picked two to three degrees riper than the regional norm, fermented without sulphur on full solids for extra texture, then double-distilled in 25-hectolitre copper stills with the fine lees of both pulp and yeast. The new spirit comes off at 71 per cent and goes first into brand new Limousin oak for two years or more before being moved to older barrels for long ageing, in either dry attic cellars, which give a more fruity, elegant style, or humid ground-level cellars, where slower evaporation brings richness and roundness. Frapin holds sixteen years of maturing stock against an industry average of around seven.