The first thing you learn about cognac is that it’s made from eau de vie, by definition a colourless, unaged fruit brandy whose name translates literally to “water of life”. It’s easy to draw parallels between this evocative term and the sleepy town of Cognac that gave the more familiar spirit its name, found in the bucolic heart of the Gallic countryside through which the Charente river—the languid body of water that gives this fertile region life and which King François I is said to have dubbed “the most beautiful river in the kingdom”—wends its way.
Sitting on the riverbank at the apex of the Charente’s northward bulge above the town of Cognac is the Château de Bagnolet, the
