Cognac is highly regulated in many respects by French law. I don't know this one. I blew up the picture and see that it is a VSOP (Very Superior Old Pale); so it has to meet all the ageing and other regional standards for that category. It would be great to drink XO all the time but it costs about 3-4 times what an VSOP does. So, it is likely to taste similar to other VSOPs. The only distinctive one I've ever found is a Borderies cognac due to its grapes being mostly from that area rather than the grand or petite cognac demarcated areas. Really cognac is the best after dinner especially on colder nights.
@LamontCranston I’ve been drinking cognac for a while now and really enjoy it. I sometimes indulge myself with a bottle of Hennessy VSOP and I’m going to be picking up a bottle of Hennessy XO for Christmas this year, maybe even a bottle Hennessy Paradise. One of the best VSOP bottles I’ve had lately is this
It was exceptionally good and reasonably priced.. this is also very good but not easy to find around here
I’m trying it out now, it’s good but not outstanding.. it’s smooth as a VSOP should be, It’s heavy on the nose with strong notes of oak. In the mouth it’s light and sweet with notes of fig and apricot. The finish is smooth again with notes of wood and a nice warm wisp of honey. It’s smooth to the end with a soft short lingering taste of fruit.. I would say it’s reasonably priced and is a good quality cognac.. I rate it 7/8 out of 10.. I still prefer my Hennessy VSOP The Biquit and Debouche VSOP beats it hands down at lower price , it’s still a good cognac
No, I've not had this brand of Cognac, but I see multiple misconceptions in the comments ...
- Champagne (a sparkling wine made specifically in the Champagne region of France of course ... in Europe in general region names are frequently, but not always, more prominent than raw material variety names like grape cultivars) is made from chardonnay, pinot noir, and/or pinot meunier grapes (pinot noir especially is a cool climate grape so it's not happy in southwest France in or near Cognac)
- Cognac is primarily made from ugni blanc grapes, which is what the French decided to call the Italian grape otherwise known as trebbiano (specifically trebbiano Toscano — there are multiple grape varieties in Italy which go by some variant of the trebbiano name); colombard, folle blanche, montils, semillon and folignan are secondary grapes used in Cognac production
- the only legal consideration for where bourbon must be made is that it must be produced in the US, but it has never been legally limited to Kentucky; likewise no whiskey produced outside the US can legally be called bourbon; any bourbon-inspired whiskeys from Japan may offer familiar flavors but they are not bourbon, not anymore than Yamazaki 12 Yr is a Scotch whisky (it is just inspired by Scotch)
- while producers of the Tennesse whiskey style do indeed try to market their product as a distinct category, it does nonetheless still meet the legal definition of bourbon
- vanilla flavor always comes from an oak barrel (generally a new barrel, otherwise most of the wood's flavors have been used up, and it becomes a neutral barrel, which preferable for other use cases, for instance the first aging of any Scotch whisky is le in used bourbon barrels, hence Beam-Suntory ships their used Makers Mark barrels to Laphroaig, since Beam-Suntory owns both brands and all bourbon is legally required to be aged in new oak), regardless of what libation is being aged in that barrel, whether is it bourbon, aged (not white) rum, aged (not white) tequila, chardonnay, or something else going into that barrel
- Cognac (and brandy in general, which is inherently made from fruit, not grains or sugar cane) does not taste like a cross between rum and whisk(e)y, it very much tastes different from those, whether it is Cognac, Armenian brandy, Mexican brandy, California brandy, Chilean or Peruvian pisco, or Italian grappa; the only brandy-adjacent spirit that tastes similar to whiskey (and not at all like rum) is applejack, and this owes to the fact that it has neutral grain spirits added to it because it's cheaper than trying to make a full-on brandy (even an apple brandy like Calvados)
@MartinTheFirst I think it’s an acquired taste.. most bourbon drinkers could come to like it if they gave it a try. It’s very similar in mouth feel and smoothness.
@Telcontar Yeah, sorry, I should have made it clear I knew that. All bourbons are supposed to be from Kentucky too, but the name gets used even on whiskey from Japan. That was my thinking when I asked.
@RosaMarie I didn’t know that about bourbon.. I drank my share of JD back in the day but I don’t much care for it anymore, don’t think I ever did, it was just something that we all did back then. My brothers are into single malt Irish whiskey., that can get expensive. Lately they’ve expanded their range into craft whiskey
@Telcontar JD isn't actually bourbon. (Nor does it pretend to be.). It's a Tennessee straight whiskey. It's filtered through oak charcoal, which doesn't fit the technical definition of a bourbon. That's what gives it the strong vanilla flavor.
