G.B. Fookes Cognac is the brainchild of Melbourne local Richard Wiggins. Richard loved cognac but found the drink had an old and stuffy image. The sort of stuff your dad would drink late on a Saturday night. So Richard set out on a quest to re-discover Cognac and introduce it to a new and younger audience.
“What I learnt is that a majority of people I spoke to enjoy Rum, Whisky and Gin but have never tried Brandy or Cognac. It’s something which their grandparents drank or their mum used for cooking.” Wiggins lamented.
Wiggins started out asking lots of people what they thought about cognac. “One opinion which kept coming up is that the labels for Cognacs are old and tired, which helped cement this idea of it being an older drink in peoples minds.” Wiggins said. “I was keen to produce a bottle and label different to this. I wanted something clean, tall and thin. Something which looked more modern and appealing, without being overly complex or too similar to what a lot of other drinks have done.”
Once Richard had his bottle he turned his mind to the packaging. Cognac is often given as a gift, so the packaging had to have a wow factor. Richard remembered seeing wooden tubes for wine bottles one Christmas so he searched high and low and found a manufacturer of birch bottle cylinders. The beautiful slender bottle now rests serenely in the wooden birch tube, making this product an excellent gift idea.
Our hope and that of Richard’s is to introduce Cognac to a new generation of drinkers. It’s a great drink for cocktails, such as the Sidecar (this drink should be bigger than the Negroni) mixed with dry ginger and a piece of lime or had straight.
G.B. Fookes have released 2 Cognac expressions, both are V.S.O.P. The G.B. Fookes Fine Cognac is made from grapes from both Petit Champagne and Champagne regions with at least 50% from Grande Champagne. The G.B. Fookes Champagne Cognac is made from grapes sourced 100% from the Grand Champagne region of France.
You may have never tried a Cognac: now is the time. Introducing G.B. Fookes…
Great to see Brandy making a comeback. All the other spirits are enjoying a renaissance so why shouldn’t Brandy to?
I’m looking forward to trying GB Fookes. And I agree a sidecar is the arguably best ‘savoury’ style cocktail you’ll encounter.
I agree 100%. Cognac should be more than a status symbol. Remember it started out as just a drink.