My father once told me that after WWII, France owed Uruguay a great amount of money and that Uruguay forgave the debt. To show its gratitude France granted Uruguay the right to make and brand Cognac (which legally could only be made in the region of Cognac in France)
I’ve tried to track the authenticity of this but could never find anything but second hand references.
Wikipedia used to mention this in its cognac article but now it’s only in the edit history.
Anybody have a clue if this is factual?
This (ended) eBay auction was for a 50 ml bottle of Tres Plumas Coñac from Uruguay, and says the bottle is from the 1960s.
Ararat brandy from Armenia (or Turkey I forget) is allowed by the French to call itself cognac. It is very good.
American wineries used to make “champagne,” too–that doesn’t mean actual Champagne producers or the French government approved.
I’m skeptical of all these claims (the wiki cite for the Ararat claim is defunct, BTW).
Whether these claims are true is another matter. The bottle I have which was purchased in Armenia does not say “cognac”, nor does it say “brandy”.
This much is true: the Juanico/Deicas distillery (scroll to the bottom), which labels its product as Cognac, was originally state operated. I can’t find any independent verification that the French government granted them a license to use the name.
I suspect it may be a clever invention to boost sales.
Other liquors can be strongly associated with a region significantly smaller than the area where they can in theory, legally be made.
For example, Bourbon is very heavily associated with Kentucky, though legally Bourbon can be made anywhere in the United States as long as it fulfills the ingredient and process requirements for making Bourbon. A small amount of Bourbon is made in Virginia, and probably Tennessee.
It appears that under section (k)(3) there it would be illegal to market any “cognac” in the United States that was not made in the Cognac/Charente region.
Although, unlike the terms for Irish, Scottish or Canadian whiskies in (a)(7-9), that apparently leaves open the possibility of a brandy made in Charente, but not conforming to French standards for “Cognac,” being sold in the US as something it could not be sold as in Europe. (I don’t know that there are any such brandies, but the difference of approach is curious.)
At this site belonging to the state owned distillery I found photos of modern day bottles with the Cognac brand on them.
http://www.caba.com.uy/htm/juanico.htm
This might indicate they have a right to do so, or at the very least that France doesn’t enforce compliance here.