The questions

Every answer is in the Cognac Trip article.

1. 1 What are the Pasquets best known for when they turn up at trade shows?

   Their infectious good humour

   Wearing seriously stylish charentaise slippers

2. 2 What happens with Duluc during a visit to the estate?

   A rooftop barbecue

   A reconnaissance mission by jeep through the vines

3. 3 With Prunier, something is unique in Cognac — but what?

   They own the oldest house in town

   They have no cellar there at all

4. 4 What makes Cholet so unusual?

   The location of the estate

   The multi-spirit creations coming out of the cellar

5. 5 With Navarre you learn a great deal of history, such as:

   What the words Grande Fine Champagne on the labels actually mean

   The recipe for grillon charentais

6. 6 At Fillioux, the history of the property is marked by:

   A 15th-century well, 29 metres deep

   A surrounding wall listed as a French historic monument

7. 7 The improbable thing still in use at Lheraud involves:

   An anemometer on the estate roof dating from the Second Empire

   A diverted branch of the river running through the period distillation room

8. 8 With Grosperrin the weather holds no fear, because in their Saintes cellar:

   Every winter it floods to a depth of 65 centimetres

   Every summer the temperature climbs to 45 degrees

9. 9 Vallein Tercinier's originality shows in:

   Their twin still fed by one boiler linked to a single cooling column

   A solera ageing system using acacia casks

10. 10 Laurichesse was sitting on secrets without knowing it — but which?

    A letter signed by Francois I declaring their production to be of national interest

    A cellar forgotten on an estate for 50 years, holding 100 casks all fit for bottling

11. 11 Building work at Vaudon turned up some surprises:

    Demijohns hidden in the loft during the Second World War

    Weapons concealed by the Resistance in a disused well

12. 12 With Peyrot, you learn that the Bergeronnette:

    Is the name of the property, handed down as a logo by the grandfather

    Is a local Charente tradition, a verbal joust by the fireside

13. 13 Coming in from the cold, Gabrielsen had the idea:

    Of using pharmacies to sell cognac in Norway during prohibition

    Of bringing in elk to put their strength to work in the vines

14. 14 Napoleon III and Mauxion have this in common:

    Their logo was created during that reign, in 1865

    They fought side by side at Magenta in 1859