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Guided route · 5 stops
Six complementary denominations across a hundred kilometres. Cognac is the finest example of what the law can do with a soil: a hierarchy of crus that exists only on paper and in the taste.
Stop 01 of 05 · The frame
The geographical indication extends over Charente and Charente-Maritime, and its area is now drawn from the INAO delimitation — the line is solid, no longer dashed. Within it, the law has cut out six crus — let us begin with the one that gave its name to all the others.
Stop 02 of 05 · Cru
South of the town, on Campanian chalk. The outline drawn is that of the official delimitation — for a long time this room knew this cru only as a point, and the gap between the two states can still be read in the entries: the map shows only what the database holds.
Stop 03 of 05 · Cru
The smallest of the six, north of Cognac, on clays with flint. This is where the real area is most useful: a cru of this size, approximated by a whole département, would have been wrong by two orders of magnitude.
Stop 04 of 05 · A rule, an outline
Fine Champagne is a blending rule between Grande and Petite Champagne — and yet INAO delimits it: its area is the exact union of its two constituent crus. The law can draw even a rule. This room long presented it as a denomination without a place; the making of the areas gave it an outline, and the correction is part of the tour.
Stop 05 of 05 · The Bois
Three rings around the Champagnes, from the most continental to the most oceanic — the Bois ordinaires reach the coast and the islands. Their nested areas are now drawn one inside the other: what three almost overlapping markers could not say, three outlines show.
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Exit
1 entry of this route appears in none of its stops. It can still be consulted through its own page.