Europe's premier brandy appellation, produced in a region of France around 90 minutes' drive from Bordeaux. Cognac producers make around €3bn ($3.5bn) in sales a year. The industry is far more reliant on overseas markets than other French products such as wine or cheese; fully 97% of cognac is sipped abroad. The Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac (BNIC), the industry body, counts some 4,360 winegrowers and distillers in the region.
The three biggest producers are LVMH, Pernod Ricard and Remy Cointreau.
China's government launched a dumping investigation into European brandy, widely seen as retaliation for an EU probe into Chinese electric vehicles. In October 2024 China applied provisional anti-dumping tariffs. Between October and May, cognac shipments to the country fell by 38%. In July 2025, 34 producers, including the three biggest, agreed to minimum prices and were exempted from new duties; a 35% tariff for the next five years applies to the remaining producers. China also raised the import tax on brandy and whisky from 5% to 10%.
America is the biggest market for cognac. In mid-2025 sales dropped almost 12% year on year. The slump reflects both the strain on consumers' wallets and longer-term trends: younger Americans are drinking less, with the share of those aged 18-34 who say drinking even in moderation is bad for health reaching 65% in 2024, up from 34% in 2018 (Gallup). Cognac has also lost cultural cachet; whereas in the 1990s rappers including 2Pac and Master P name-dropped Hennessy in their lyrics, more recent hits by Nicki Minaj and Drake have favoured tequila brands such as Casamigos.
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