On November 24th, 2020, Christophe Véral and Alexandre Gabriel were elected President and Vice-President, respectively, of the BNIC and will serve a three-year term. This was decided via an online assembly and vote directed by a representative of the Winegrowers sector and Cognac Merchants. The entire 14-member Standing Committee was also voted on at that time and have been confirmed.
The BNIC Standing Committee is responsible for pushing the vison of the Cognac AOC both in the public eye and amongst their industry counterparts. They will be directly responsible for upholding and enforcing the laws and regulations regarding the production of Cognac.
According to the official press release by the BNIC, Christophe Véral has lived in the Charente region since 1994 and has long held a passion for vineyards and Cognac. He’s a grower-distiller and personally owns 110 hectares of vines and has aging cellars in the city of Sainte-Sévère. His previous term on the BNIC Standing Committee was that of Winegrowers’ Representative.
Alexandre Gabriel was born in Burgundy and learning all about winegrowing and distillation from his grandfather. His name should be a familiar to Cognac fans as he has been the manager and Cellarmaster of Pierre Ferrand for the last 31 years after he created the brand in 1989. He has been a member of the Standing Committee for many years now. In 2017, the American Distilling Institute awarded him their highest distinction for his continuous contributions to the spirits industry. He’s a huge fan of Cognac history and is always striving to uncover old techniques that have fallen out of practice.
While any new regulations or amendments to current ones must be voted upon, it is noteworthy that Alexandre Gabriel is a big proponent of alternative aging practices such as using long forgotten woods to make barrels, like Chestnut, which is currently not allowed in the region. There are a growing number of producers that would like to see a little more leeway with this and have been very vocal about it. It will be interesting to see if Mr. Gabriel presents anything to the committee in the coming years to try to alter current regulations, specifically regarding aging.
