Sales of Cognac soaring - good news for the Charente

It's always good to see ones local economy booming and I was heartened to read this report on Michael Streeters excellent blog.

Michael begins his report by saying:

While many in society will be starting 2011 with the same uncertainty as they ended 2010, one sector at least will be raising a glass for 2011. The cognac industry.

At the peak of the financial and economic crisis sales of the famous drink plummeted around the world, going down to levels not seen since the dark days of the late 1990s.

In 2010, however, cognac was back with a vengeance. By the end of November 153 million bottles had been sold in the previous 12 months, the third best performance in history. (The best two were 157.1 million in 1989 and 159.3 in 2007 just before the crisis fell.)

In 2009 the equivalent figure had been just 130 million bottles.

Strong sales of Cognac around the world are good news for my friend Christian M who owns a vineyard, Christian G  who is a cellar master, Jean who works making barrels and even Martine who runs a bar (if the local economy is thriving then people spend more).

Of course more money sloshing around the Charente will also help the local housing market and we could well see the average house price in Cognac rise from its current level of €120,600 this year.

www.cognacproperty.com