It’s not very often that the words ‘vodka’ and ‘cognac’ appear in the same sentence, nevermind the same title. But we found out today that the expertise required to make great brandy can be transferred over to make great vodka.

After a much needed refuel last night (consisting of foi grois, wine, cheese, cognac and cigars), today we headed over to the CIROC distillery. The distillery is right near the town of Chavernverurx, still well within the boundaries of the Cognac region.

Two distilleries for the price of one, CIROC shares its space with stills that are used to produce a variety of Cognacs and even a tiny little pot still that generates a liquor from grape vine flowers.

The Ugni Blanc part of CIROC is double column distilled in another location to a strength of nearly 97%ABV, providing us with the previously mentioned ‘blank canvas’. The Mauzac Blanc element of CIROC continues it’s journey here though.

The vinified Mauzac Blanc is transported to the distillery and first put through a copper column still. The distillate drawn off here is around 93.5%ABV. This particular strength is high enough to keep within legal minimums (once blended with the Ugni Blanc), but low enough to retain an astonishing amount of the grape character. The Mauzac distillate is then cut with water and sent through a copper pot still. The pot still allows further interaction between liquid and copper, consolidating flavour, aroma and texture.

Jean-Sebastien conducted a short nosing of neutral grain, Ugni Blanc and Mauzac Blanc spirits (cut to 20%ABV). We found the Ugni Blanc to be surprisingly neutral in the face of the cereal aromatics of the GNS, but the Mauzac providing loads of character – bubble gum, orange blossom, mandarin and peach melba, curiously similar to the desert wine of the same origin that we tried yesterday.

The final stages of CIROC production involve blending of both grapes and then a fifth (in total) pot distillation of around 95% Ugni Blanc and 5% Mauzac Blanc. The end product is rich with citrus, lemon zest and cream soda aromas.

Before we left the site we had a quick opportunity to see the Cognac stills and aging warehouse. Everyone noted that the smells from both still and barrel were undeniably more pleasant than most other distilleries. It must be the grapes.

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