ABSTRACT
Cognac is a distilled eau-de-vie spirit sold across the world and produced in a controlled appellation region in southwest France. Several actors are involved in the production and commercialisation of cognac, particularly the trading houses whose role is to select the crus, buy the wines from the producers, and sell the product. With the large number of actors involved, this wine-producing territory can be viewed as an organised social construct in which the local society’s production methods prevail. Cognac’s worldwide success is attributable to territorial quality, and several major cognac houses have opened their doors to visitors with guided tours. We conducted an observational survey to ascertain how the major cognac houses exploit territorial quality as part of their tourism development.
