Editing Cognac (section)

===Blending===
The age of the cognac is calculated as that of the youngest component used in the blend. The blend is usually of different ages and (in the case of the larger and more commercial producers) from different local areas. This blending, or ''marriage'', of different ''eaux de vie'' is important to obtain a complexity of flavours absent from an ''eau de vie'' from a single distillery or vineyard. Each cognac house has a master taster (''maître de chai''), who is responsible for blending the spirits, so that cognac produced by a company will have a consistent house style and quality.<ref>Sales & Service for the Wine Professional, by Brian K. Julyan, p. 237</ref> In this respect, it is similar to the process of blending [[whisky]] or non-vintage Champagne to achieve a consistent brand flavor. A very small number of producers, such as [[Guillon Painturaud]] and [[Moyet]], do not blend their final product from different ages of ''eaux de vie'', so produce a "purer" flavour.<ref>{{Cite web
 | year =2009
 | title =Single Estate Cognac
 | url =http://www.singleestatecognac.com
 | access-date = 21 July 2009
}}</ref>
Hundreds of vineyards in the Cognac AOC region sell their own cognac. These are likewise blended from the ''eaux de vie'' of different years, but they are single-vineyard cognacs, varying slightly from year to year and according to the taste of the producer, hence lacking some of the predictability of the better-known commercial products. Depending on their success in marketing, small producers may sell a larger or smaller proportion of their product to individual buyers, wine dealers, bars and restaurants, the remainder being acquired by larger cognac houses for blending.