Origin & Craft
Where it starts
Grape juice from the Charente, married with cognac and rested. The method is the region's own and it is centuries old: the spirit stops the fermentation, so what is left is fruit rather than alcohol pretending to be it.
The house
What is in the bottle
Straw yellow when it is young, deep old gold when it is not. The nose is lime flower, then peach, plum and fig, then almond, prune and quince with honey and vanilla underneath. Rich, and still delicate. It goes with foie gras, oysters and seafood before a meal, and with melon, pear and fruit pie after one. Made at Vinet-Puranik in the Charente.
The fruit
White grapes, pressed
Ugni Blanc off the same slopes that make the cognac, picked for juice rather than for spirit. Nothing about the vineyard changes; the vat does.
Mutage
Stopped, not fermented
Cognac eau-de-vie goes into the fresh juice and stops it before it can ferment out. The sweetness in the glass is the grape’s own, never added.
Barrel aged
Straw to old gold
Then oak, and time. Young it is straw yellow; left long enough it goes deep old gold, and the honey and vanilla arrive with the colour.
Ninety two points
Lime flower and honey
Intense and elegant, a palette of fresh fruit with honey and vanilla behind it. An aperitif with foie gras, oysters and seafood; a dessert with melon, pear or fruit pie.
The moment it belongs to
When to open it
Pineau Des Charentes Blanc belongs to a table where somebody has cooked properly and wants the first glass to say so.
Serving
Before the meal, or with dessert
With foie gras, oysters or seafood to open. With melon, pear or a fruit pie to close. Small glasses either way, because it is richer than it looks.
Temperature
Six to eight degrees
Well chilled. The acidity and the lime flower are what keep the sweetness in check, and both need the cold to do it.
In a cocktail
In a cocktail
Over ice with soda and a twist of lemon, as an aperitif that takes ten seconds to make. It is fortified already, so nothing needs adding for strength.
