Hine

Three hundred and eighty-one kilometres through France. Four départements crossed before the Atlantic Ocean is reached, with Rochefort as the last leg. From the low plateaux of the Limousin, Charente appears gentle and bucolic, softer than its imposing neighbour, Garonne. This aquatic Via Agrippa traces its path to distant destinations, bearing eaux-de-vie fashioned by Charente’s limestone soils and the skill of the region’s winegrowers, distillers, coopers and cellar masters. Before Rochefort and the ocean lies Saintes. Further upstream, the abundant town of Cognac. And then, on the right bank of the river emerges the discreet Jarnac. It is here in 1763 that the adventure of the House of Hine begins…

The year is 1791. A young Englishman sets out from his native Dorset to learn the secrets of how cognac, his father’s favourite tipple, is produced. Thomas Hine is the sixth of twelve children and has just turned sixteen. His sense of timing is questionable though, given how inopportune a moment it is for an Englishman to find himself in France! Fleeing the French Revolution, he is imprisoned at the Château de Jarnac, where he remains sequestered for several months. His marriage to Françoise-Elisabeth, the daughter of his hosts, ensues. In 1817, Thomas Hine gives his name to this House, established on the banks of the Charente in 1763.

Since this dramatic arrival, six generations of the Hine family have succeeded one another at the head of Thomas Hine & Co. The tasting rooms at 16 Quai de l’Orangerie have seen it all, from the Great French Wine Blight to local conflicts, world wars, first bottlings, international incidents, economic booms and slumps, legendary river floods, connoisseur parties and exalted blends. Today, under the watchful eye of sixth-generation member Bernard Hine, a dedicated team of twenty people strive to preserve and act upon 254 years of spirited history.

The House of Hine cherishes a solid belief: that a great cognac is above all a great white wine. The identity of this wine is imprinted beneath our feet, at the heart of a living land that has evolved over thousands of years. Vines form the link between the earth and the heavens, replete with vagaries and caprices. They infuse the grapes with a character extracted from this unique, unparalleled place, imbued with a temporality that commands the here and now. Cognac embodies a perpetual quest for balance between consistency and virtuosity.

The blending of vintages and crus is fundamental, as it guarantees a particular style and distinct mode of expression. The House of Hine draws its identity from the heart of two Premier Crus (in a region where Crus number just six): the Grande Champagne and the Petite Champagne. In the village of Bonneuil, 70 hectares of vineyards unfurl their rows of Ugni Blanc vines across rolling valleys – a landscape that is characteristic to Grande Champagne. Limestone rocks peep out at the foot of the vines like a promise of future vivacity.

Whether a blend of vintage eaux-de-vie that have reached full maturity or the frank expression of a single plot in its first ten years, Hine cognacs share the same attributes of delicacy, vivacity and finesse, and bear witness to the complex nature of the soils in which the roots of our vines are anchored.

Once the autumn grape harvest is finished, distillation on lees concentrates the aromas of these resolutely acidic white wines tenfold. There in the heat of the still, everything hinges on precision and alchemy, transforming the work of the vine into a clear and impetuous eau-de-vie suffused with intense notes of banana and fresh pear, carnations and violets.

By entering into contact with wood, young cognacs round off their education, gaining in vocabulary and experience. At Hine, the French oak casks used to age our eaux-de-vie are selected with a view to showcasing their aromatic profile. The aim is not to mask the flavours with dominant woody tones, but to enhance them as part of a delicate exchange between the eau-de-vie and oak staves. This finesse is the result of two key choices made during the manufacturing of our barrels: the selection of wood with a very fine grain and the light toasting it then receives. As the years pass, the cognac takes on a radiant amber hue and, while always maintaining the fruit as its primary aroma, unleashes hints of walnut, freshly toasted bread and blonde tobacco.

Although Hine seeks to identify and isolate certain plots in order to vinify yields using an approach focused on micro-provenance and marked by precision, the heart of the cognac adventure resides in the final blending process. This is what guarantees the character of every Hine cognac that leaves our cellars. Cue our cellar master Eric Forget, who calls on his memory and sense of harmony to recreate the essence of every blend each year using the invariably different eaux-de-vie made available to him annually. So like the conductor of an orchestra reinterpreting the same score, year after year, with new groups of musicians ever