Maison Dudognon

The Dudognon family has grown grapes in the small village of Lignières-Sonneville since 1776. This village is about eleven miles southeast of the town of Cognac in the heart of the famed Grande Champagne zone, Cognac’s most hallowed ground. The soil here is largely composed of Campanian chalk, and spirits from this cru are especially renowned for their tremendous length.

Raymond Dudognon was born in 1927, into a long line of Cognac distillers dating back to his great grandfather Paulin. Under Raymond’s direction, the Dudognon estate grew to just under thirty-five hectares, and the Cognac produced there was highly sought after by négociants and celebrated internationally, his Réserve des Ancêtres winning the Gold Medal at The International Spirits Tasting Show in 1990. Raymond’s property was eventually divided among his three daughters, and he chose daughter Claudine as his successor, to whom he passed the distilling knowledge he had accumulated over more than half a century.

Today, Claudine Dudognon, along with her husband, Gerald Buraud, and son, Pierre, have ten hectares of vines divided between Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche, and Montils (approximately 88%, 9%, and 3%, respectively), and work part of their vineyard organically. The Dudognon-Burauds are staunch traditionalists who distill only the grapes grown on their parcels, and their two alembic stills produce roughly 100 barrels per year. Decisions during distillation are done with the glass in hand rather than with scientific instruments, and the eaux-de-vie is aged in a small, rustic chai on the property. The eaux-de-vie goes into new oak to rest for about eight months before being transferred to older barrels. Staves for these 350-liter barrels are purchased from a local cooper and brought back to the property to air-dry for approximately three years to remove their tannin before being returned to the cooper for fashioning. All the Cognac distilled and aged here is bottled under the Dudognon label.

While many Cognacs are laden with permitted additives (sugar syrup, boisé, caramel), the only additive used in Dudognon Cognac is water. Because of this, their color is fairly light and their sweetness comes only from the naturally concentrated fruit, while their length, like the finest spirits from the Grand Champagne, is counted in minutes.