Cognac, France

Cognac is a commune in the Charente department of southwestern France and the subprefecture of that department. It lies on the river Charente between Angouleme and Saintes, with most of the town on the left bank and a smaller district, Saint Jacques, on the right bank, roughly 400 kilometres southwest of Paris. The town was unknown before the ninth century, when it was fortified, and it changed sides repeatedly during the Hundred Years' War. In 1526 it gave its name to the War of the League of Cognac, and the king, Francis I, who was born in the town's castle in 1494, granted it commercial rights in the salt trade along the Charente, from which the regional trade in wine and brandy grew. The town gives its name to the famous brandy, which must be made in designated areas around it under strict rules and is double distilled; the houses of Hennessy, Martell, Otard, Camus and Remy Martin have their centres in the town. Cognac has an oceanic climate, classed Cfb in the Koppen system, and its medieval quarter, Vieux Cognac, runs along the river from the Tours Saint-Jacques to the Saint-Leger church.