Tesseron

I attended a trade tasting hosted by fourth generation Cognac family member Melanie Tesseron, the Tesseron family having established their distilling concern in 1905. The family is also known as the owners of Pontet Canet and Lafon Rochet, and the Cognacs are renowned for their paler colour and delicacy. A distillation of Tesseron in two sentences, pun intended.

They make their Cognac predominately from the ugni blanc grape variety, firstly as a dry white wine, and then do a double distillation via a traditional copper system. A combination of dry (cement floors – drier, nutty notes) and wet cellars (earth floors – richer notes) are employed for ageing. Age in barrel goes to around a maximum of about 75 years or 80 years, but generally with a minimum of 25 years per cuvee. Any older than 75/80 years, and the wines are placed into glass demi-johns for ageing beyond a century.

Tesseron says ‘cognac is less influenced by the viticulture, remember it is double distilled, aged in barrel – the evaporation is about 3% per year – it’s not really about the wine and influence of grape variety, and yes colombard can give richness and folle blanche floral notes, but they don’t really alter the wine’.

And on colour, Tesseron espouses, ‘when you have a tilt in colour towards red, it’s likely been blended, more amber colour and the cognac is more pure’. Tesseron says they add a little caramel colouring, but minimal compared to most Cognac houses and she believes all do in some degree, and usually much more than they do.

Tesseron explains her position of being ‘purer, lighter in colour’ (as house style) by describing the Cognac-making process unique to her house – the eau de vie goes into new barrels for around six months, which is when the first elements of colour, the formation of base colour, starts, then the Cognac goes to older barrels (three to five years) for the next period of ageing. The older reserves of Cognac are highly prized and the Cognac of Tesseron is known as an aficionados pursuit. Other Cognac producers have been known to knock on their door for mature material from time to time.

Tesseron does everything themselves; no blending from other houses, and it’s hands-on right down to hand labelling. These are very premium expressions of brandy. MIKE BENNIE, The Wine Front 2012