Customer Reviews

Cognac: The Seductive Saga of the World's Most Coveted Spirit

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Kyle Jarrard has voiced the subtlety, complexity and passion of a grande champagne wafting across the tongue. His gift for storytelling carried me from the dawn of time, through the emergence of the "eau de vie," to a promising future. The journey is fraught with peaks and valleys, perils and rewards, villains and heros. His infectious reverence for the people, region and products of Cognac blends poetry and journalism in a book that is parts history, personality profile, science text, gourmet cookbook and market analysis.

This book provides an admirable, if tedious history of the Cognac region through the middle ages. Beyond that, it is basically a bald tout of the Cognac industry with no critical elements to it at all. Worse, it provides virtually NO useful information on the specifics of how Cognac is made beyond grand allusions to how wonderful it is. Very disappointing read and an obvious promotion of the industry and region.

It isn't often a book will change your life. This one semi sort of did. Leastwise, it changed my drinking. Mid-way into my 60s, I've set aside single malt scotch and switched to cognac. The book is just as satisfying, as much a history of France and it is cognac. Then, of course, one is pretty much the other. If you aren't a fan of cognac, you may soon be. Happy reading, happy drinking!