This is a two-part question, and whoever is able to answer the second
part, should also be able to answer the first. I need to get answers
to both questions in order to accept the answer.

1. Are there any online stores that either specialize in cognac sales
or offer an extensive selection of cognacs?

2. I need a list of a few articles / publications / research reports
in the past three years that talk about online sales of cognac,
trends, stores, success stories, failure stories, market status,
cognac distributors and wholesalers, and anything else that has to do
with online cognac sales in the United States.

<After an extensive search I could find only three sites that
specialise in cognac and ship to the U.S. There are a greater number
of online liquor stores that also stock cognac as one of their many
products.

Specialist cognac sites.

Le-cognac.com  was the first specialist  cognac site on the internet.
It is devoted entirely to cognac. They sell 100 different cognac
products.
http://www.le-cognac.com/

Cognacweb is a specialised cognac site selling 8 cognac products.
However it is not up to date. It?s news is from 1998. There are also a
number of broken links.
http://www.cognacweb.com/giftshop.html

Pierre Boullmer
Sells 14 Pierre Boullmer cognacs and 2 champagnes.
http://www.pierreboullmer.com/company.htm

Cognac producer sites.

The major producers of cognac only provide information about their
products. They do not sell online. Their sites are as follows:
http://www.hennessy-cognac.com/index2.asp
http://www.courvoisier.com/pages/main_fr.html
http://www.remy.com/index_eu.htm
http://www.otard.com/gb/index.htm
http://www.martell.com/martell_flash.html

Cognac producers are drifting onto the web.
http://www.cognacnet.com/torulanews/tn02.htm

Other sites selling cognac as part of their product range.

Missionliquor.com  sells a range of drinks, cigars and accessories
including over 90 different cognacs.
http://www.missionliquor.com/Store/Qstore/Qstore.cgi?CMD=009&DEPT=000002&CAT=000017&BACK=A0007A1B0000002B1

Bevmo.com sells a range of drinks and offers 67 cognac products.
http://www.bevmo.com/productlist.asp?area=spirits&category=30060010&catname=Cognac&leftmenu=

Internet wines and spirits sells a range of drinks and offers 95 cognac products.
http://www.internetwines.com/spirits-brandy-cognac.html

Beerliquors.com sells a range of drinks including an extensive range
of cognacs. They claim to have the largest selection of liquors and
liqueurs in the U.S. The website describes the products but they are
actually sold by Internet Wines & Spirits (see above).
http://www.beerliquors.com/liquors/cognac.htm

Vino.com ? Sells over 3500 wines including a wide range of cognacs.
http://www.vino.com/shopping/products.asp?cat=98&Sort=&Let=

Cig4U.com ? sells a limited choice of major brand cognacs.
http://www.cig4u.com/brands.asp?strCartID={E8EBE9AF-E0B2-468D-B711-2F4B9BC3702C}&intCatID=7000

Winedancer.com Sells a selection of 22 cognac gifts.
http://www.winedancer.com/en-gb/dept_113.html

Queenannewine.com sells a range of liquors and cigars including 10 cognacs.
http://www.queenannewine.com/spirits.html

France-wine.com ? 7 cognacs.
http://www.france-wine.com/fw/wines/by-category/cognac/list/cognac-list.htm


Prime Wine ? sells a large choice of wine and a limited choice of
Cognac ? three brands.
http://www.primewines.com/content_about_us.asp

-------------------------------------------------------------

2. Articles.
There is a lack of information about online sales of cognac. This is
probably due to the fact that there are so few specialist sites and it
is not an activity that the major producers are involved in. They just
tend to use their sites as marketing tools.

Selling cognac online.
A article in Torula News on 18.01.01 talks about online sales of
cognac. It states that for a long time only a few specialised sites
sold cognac.  It is sold in limited quantities and only when a site
takes the time to explain the product. To gain repeat sales good
customer service is essential. Rare or limited quantities helps to
attract collectors and connoisseurs.
http://www.swfrance.com/torulanews/torulanews0101.htm

Luxury etailers.
This article describes how people are willing to invest in websites
selling luxury goods. It highlights a company that has raised $13
million in investment funds to sell high-end wines.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/13640.html

Swfrance.com features cognac news stories.
http://www.swfrance.com/

The lack of information about cognac retailers prompted me to look at
how other alcohol retailers have faired online.

The US Wine Industry and the Internet.
This paper discusses how many online wine selling sites have failed.
Only a small fraction of wine is sold online accounting for 0.5% of
U.S. retail sales. This paper includes case studies of retailers and
reasons for their failure. According to NRF/Forrester, online spending
on food and beverages was $93.7 million (2.3% of the total volume of
online spending).
http://uaeller.eller.arizona.edu/~mginsbur/pubs/2003/ca_wine.pdf

One of the major failures was wine.com and one of the survivors was
evinyard. However even evinyard needed a major injection of cash to
keep going. Their experiences show the problems associated with
selling alcohol online. This article tells how evineyard was one of
the few survivors in the online wine business, buying the name
wine.com from the company before it went bankrupt. Evineyard suffered
losses due to a lack of expertise in selling wine.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-944232.html?tag=cd_mh

Wine shopper and wine.com merge.
The merger comes in the wake of immense regulatory difficulties
regarding the sale and transportation of alcohol.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017_3-244502.html?tag=st_rn

The full story of wine.com?s problems.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/3756788.htm



<Additional links:>

<The U.S. market 2002>
http://www.harpers-wine.com/featuresitem.cfm?FeatureID=47
http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Daily/News_Print/0,2463,2287,00.html
http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Daily/News/0,1145,2287,00.html

<U.S. market 2001>
<http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Daily/News/0,1145,1625,00.html>

<Cognac trends.>
<http://www.beveragebusiness.com/art-arch/mmbradford01.html>

<New bill targets online liquor sales>
<http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0HDN/1999_June_18/54945813/p1/article.jhtml>

<Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America>
<http://www.wswa.org/public/about/who.html>

<Brand popularity influenced by songs.>
<http://www.newmediastrategies.net/buzz_brandweek2.html>

<Lowest prices of cognac available online.>
<http://shop.bizrate.com/buy/products__cat_id--16060000,keyword--cognac,att287006--267938-.html>

<Links to producers>
<http://www.bnic.fr/web_bnic/asp/negoce_marques_sites.asp>

<Demographics
49% of readers purchased cognac.
http://www.hamptons-magazine.com/demographics.php

45% of readers purchased cognac.
http://www.gotham-magazine.com/demographics.php

35% of readers purchased cognac.
http://www.la-confidential-magazine.com/demographics.php>

<Cognac importers and distributors in the U.S.>
<http://www.swfrance.com/torula/toruladistributorsusa.htm>

<Report ? French Brandy and Cognac 2002 costs 240 Euro.>
<http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/7975/>

<Alize ups the ante>
<http://www.beveragenet.net/bd/2000/0800/0800fyi.asp>


<Search strategy:>

<"buy cognac">
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22buy+cognac%22>

<"online sales" cognac >
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22online+sales%22+cognac+>

<"sales of cognac" >
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22sales+of+cognac%22+>

<"sell cognac" website>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22sell+cognac%22+website>

<Hope this helps.>

Wow! You have done great research! Thank you very much!!! This is
exactly the kind of information I was looking for. Great job!