Cognac

COGNAC, a strong alcoholic beverage prepared by the distillation of natural grape wines and prolonged aging in oak casks, as a result of which cognac acquires a characteristic golden-yellow color. The name cognac originates from the town of Cognac (France), the birthplace of its production. Now cognac is produced in many countries, as well as in the USSR, in the Caucasus. The qualities of cognac depend not only on the duration and method of its aging, but also on the initial products—on the variety and quality of the grapes and the wine prepared from them; this circumstance links the qualities of cognac to the place of its origin, the latter usually being indicated on the labels of expensive varieties, for example "Grand Champagne" (the vicinity of the town of Cognac). The chemical composition of foreign cognacs according to König, on average, is as follows (in mg per 100 cm³): extract 1,127.0, acids 34.6, aldehydes 9.5, higher alcohols 48.3, ethyl alcohol 48.5 volume %; specific gravity 0.9409. The composition of Russian cognacs (average of 28 analyses in mg per 100 cm³): extract 1,700.0, ethyl alcohol 45.2 volume %; specific gravity 0.9464. In view of the fact that the production of cognac requires a fourfold or greater quantity of grape wine, as well as prolonged (several years) storage, cognac is among the expensive alcoholic beverages; the latter serves as the cause of frequent adulteration and falsification of cognac, which consist in the fact that under the name of cognac there are found on sale 1) ordinary wine alcohol artificially flavored with essences and colored golden, and 2) unaged and low-grade cognac, tinted and flavored in order to impart to it the properties of an expensive product. According to the regulations on the production of vodka products, grape vodka, and cognac (Bulletin of the People's Commissariat of Health No. 23, 1927), products prepared from cognac spirit (spirit distilled from grape wine) with a strength of not less than 40° and not more than 60° must be called cognac; products prepared not from cognac spirit cannot be called cognac even with the addition of the words "artificial," "unnatural," and the like; the manufacture of cognac is permitted exclusively from cognac spirit and water without any foreign admixtures other than sugar, the amount of which must not exceed 1.5% by weight of the finished cognac. Cognac, like other alcoholic agents, sometimes finds therapeutic use as a stimulant in circulatory disorders, particularly in such transient forms as sudden weakening of cardiac activity, fainting fit, and the like; in these cases, along with the action of ethyl alcohol, essential oils contained in cognac in relatively large quantities also play a role and apparently enhance the stimulating action of alcohol on the respiratory center. For a general evaluation of cognac as an alcoholic beverage, see Alcoholism.