Family-run Tessendier & Fils offers cognac connoisseurs ‘new’ 30-year-old brand

Cognac drinkers in the United States can thank the Chinese for lower retail prices over the last few years.

Cognac, like Champagne, is one of the most tightly controlled products in the world. It can only be legally produced in a small region of Central France during a specific time of the year and must be double distilled and then aged in oak barrels for a minimum of two years to be classified as VS, or Very Special. The VSOP or Very Special Old Pale designation is reserved for cognac that has aged for at least four years, and cognac that has aged for at least six years is labeled XO, or Extra Old. Some producers go beyond these requirements, but they must all follow them in order to call their products cognac.

Until about five years ago, most cognac shipments went to Chinese customers willing to pay top dollar for the best the French had to offer. But as the Chinese government pressured its citizens to reign in spending, more cognac found its way to the U.S. at lower prices.

Four brands — Courvoisier (owned by Beam Suntory), Hennessy (owned by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy), Martell (owned by Pernod Ricard) and Remy Martin (owned by Remy Cointreau) — distribute the vast majority of cognac, but there are other quality brands as well. My new favorite is Cognac Park, a relatively new brand — it’s been around for only about 30 years — with ties to a “house,” or distillery, that has produced cognac since the 19th century.

Tessendier & Fils is a family-run business that has long supplied bigger brands with eau-de-vie, or the raw distillate made with grapes used to create cognac. In the early 1990s they partnered with a Scotsman, Dominic Park, to create Park as their first in-house brand. They now sell Cognac Du Buisson, Cognac Campagnere and Cognac Grand Breuil along with Park, which is the only brand currently available in the United States.

What I like about Tessendier & Fils is that they’re known as a grower-producer, which means at least some of the grapes used to create eau-de-vie come from their own vineyards. Just like wine, the terroir of where the grapes originated is important in determining the flavor profile of the cognac. This is best illustrated by Park’s Borderies expression, which uses eau-de-vie solely from grapes grown in Borderies, a town in Cognac where Tessendier & Fils owns a vineyard.

But the higher-end XO, made with Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies and Fins Bois grapes and aged for 20 to 25 years, is an excellent example of how blending can improve cognac to create nuances in flavor that only get better when the eau-de-vie has additional time to age. You also can’t go wrong with Park’s VSOP, aged for eight to 12 years and made using Fins Bois, Petite Champagne and Grande Champagne grapes, which sells for about half the price of the XO.

Different types of Cognac Park are available in Hawaii; select local retailers also offer a variety pack that includes the VS, VSOP, Borderies, XO, XO Cigar Blend and Extra for about $60.

Cognac Park brand manager Anais Brisson was in Honolulu this week and took some time to answer a few questions.

Star-Advertiser: How did Cognac Park get started?

Brisson: Tessendier & Fils are now run by fourth-generation family members. The distillery started in 1880 with a vineyard in Borderies, so they were a grower-distiller but also selling to the major houses. The family-owned houses were usually only suppliers, so they didn’t have their own brands.

About 30 years ago the Tessendiers were making cognac and supplying other houses. They impressed a good friend of the family, Dominic Park, who was looking for a supplier to make his style of cognac. Park asked us if we could create his line with our stock.

SA: How did you get into the beverage industry? Were you always a cognac drinker?

B: I was born and raised in Cognac, and all of my family is there. I’m fifth generation. Growing up in Cognac, you try it very early. I think it’s a French culture thing. When I got older, we would always consume cognac with tonic or ginger ale. That’s the drink they serve in Cognac.

SA: How does Cognac Park differentiate between its XO, XO Extra and XO Cigar Blend?

B: Park was created in response to demand from the American market. It’s more refined and very terroir-focused. We have a line of seven cognacs in total, and they all have their own characteristics as they’re all different blends from different regions. It’s all about the blend and time spent in our cellars in new oak barrels.

SA: Not every distillery grows its own grapes. What is the advantage to Park operating as a grower-distiller in partnership with the Tessendier family?

B: Having your own grapes allows you to control production, but it also helps to control price. Every year a price is set between suppliers and buyers, and when we sell to the big houses, we sell under a contract that follows market demand. We’re still supplying to the major houses now, but as we are growing they are asking us to choose because we’re becoming competition. So the volume we’re giving to them is reducing. We also buy grapes from other suppliers to bring more complexity to our cognac.

SA: Is Cognac Park made for sipping neat or mixing into cocktails?

B: Cognac has been seen as something to sip neat, but that’s changing. What’s happening right now is that cognac is coming back due to the cocktail community. They’re the ones who know the history and have old recipes that use cognac in them.

All of our line can be enjoyed neat. If someone wants to mix a drink, they should try our Organic or the VS. Those profiles are more fruity and work well in cocktails.

Jason Genegabus has written about Honolulu bars since 2001. Contact him at jason@staradvertiser.com with suggestions of places to visit and drinks to try; read his blog at inthemix.staradvertiserblogs.com.