The cloudy, amber-hued liquid comes from India or Thailand or the United States or—as is most often the case—a warehouse in China. Deep in a lab hidden in the French countryside, a team of scientists pours the mysterious substance into a series of machines that measure its sugar, its alcohol content, its age—even its place of origin. Only then does the equipment verify what the scientists’ senses of smell and taste had already taken as a near given: This is not Cognac.
Like Tequila, bourbon, and Champagne, Cognac is a legally protected category of drink that must meet specific criteria. A particular type of brandy born from distilled wine, something can only be called Cognac if it’s been twice-distilled in copper pot stills, sits in French oak barrels for at least two years, and—perhaps most notably—is born from the vineyards that blanket the Cognac region of western France.
With Cognac sales to the United States (by far, its largest market) jumping by roughly 12 percent between 2013 and 2014, the spirit is largely growing in popularity. And as a category whose brand has benefited from a hundreds-year-old history, recent associations with hip-hop artists such as Jay-Z (who is now part-owner in the Cognac house d’Ussé) and Nas (who has worked with Hennessy in an official capacity), and growing popularity amongst the business elite in countries such as China, Cognac is also particularly appealing to counterfeiters.
“People want to use your name because it’s famous”, says Lionel Lalague, director of GI Protection and Market Access at the Bureau National Interprofessional du Cognac (or BNIC), the group charged with protecting and promoting the Cognac industry’s interests. “The best counterfeit will be a mix between real Cognac and other brandies. And if it comes from France or from the region, it can be difficult to trace.”

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