Pineau des Charentes in a few words
The story of the creation of Pineau des Charentes is rather a popular legend than a proven historical fact, but the discovery seems to be the result of serendipity.
Indeed, as Louis Pasteur’s vaccine or Christopher Columbus’s America, the development of the Pineau recipe owes its discovery to chance.
In the year 1589, when the last king of the Valois lineage died, the already “Vert Galant” Henri de Bourbon became Henri IV, King of France and Navarre.
At that time, a winemaker from Charente would have “forgotten” grape must in a barrel that contained a background of eau de vie.
After a few seasons, a few years abandoned in this providential cask, the contents of the barrel are found, tasted and adopted by the distillers of this late 16th century. Thus was born the Pineau des Charentes, according to the legend of course.
Still, it was in the 1920s that we witnessed a revival of Pineau. The delicate blend of grape must and cognac eau de vie took shape again and after the Second World War, the ancestral know-how was rewarded with an AOC label, “appellation d’origine contrôlée”.
Sainte-Hermine white Pineau is developed from the 2006, 2000 and 1999 vintages.
Sainte-Hermine red Pineau comes from the 1999 and 1998 vintages.