Cognac aging is strictly governed by the BNIC, a department of the French government which is charged with overseeing all the regulations governing the production of Cognac.  Brandy has no such organization or governing body.  Thus, if a Cognac bottle says “VSOP,” or “Napoleon,” or “XO,” then you can know with confidence that this is a statement of aging.  On a Brandy bottle, these same designations are simply marketing terms of a general nature to let you know that this particular producer regards his particular XO to be better, and thus more expensive, than his Napoleon or his VSOP.

We here, of course, are predisposed to enjoy Cognac and leave Brandy to others.  But that’s just us.  Both spirits have their place in the market, and both have their devoted consumers.  You can make your own choices, but we urge you to consume the BEST Cognac or Brandy that your budget will allow.  The cheap stuff is just that — cheap stuff — and it tastes like it.  Now go back to www.1stCru.com and get some Cognac education!

Certainly a valid question.  In our humble opinion, starting with any of the four dominant and most famous brands in the Cognac universe would be a waste of time.  It would be like wanting to learn how to eat filet mignon at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse by going to McDonald’s and ordering a Big Mac.  Even the XO’s and older qualities of these famous brands are no match for a single vineyard cognac from the Grande Champagne region for flavor.  It’s not even a contest.  When tasted side by side, the famous brands come up tasting only of wood and alcohol.  Fruit, spice and flowers are all but non-existent.  If they exist at all, the side by side shows the famous brand to be thin and watery in comparison to the single vineyard Grande Champagne cognac, such as the bold & masculine Francois Voyer, the rich  & luxurious Marthe or even the beautifully crafted & feminine Menuet.

We would strongly recommend that you start with either the 15-year old Francois Voyer Napoleon, or the 23-year old Marthe Fauve.  Each of these wonderful examples of the distiller’s art have a simple enough palate so as not to intimidate the novice, but at the same time they are both rich with flavors.  The Francois Voyer has wonderfully powerful vanilla at the center of the palate, with warm, almost sweet oak in the back at the finish.  The Marthe Fauve goes even further with very dominant vanilla, caramel and butterscotch on the palate that lead to an impossibly long finish which lingers for 2 minutes or more in the back of the mouth.

Go back to the tasting page and read again HOW to taste cognac, then try it yourself with either of  the above two choices.  When you’ve started to train your palate to the nuances of cognac, then go out and spend the money on a truly great bottle of cognac.  Find a bottle of 30-year old Marthe Sepia, or 40-year old Francois Voyer Extra, or even a 50-year old Menuet Hors d’Age.  With your palate trained, these cognacs will amaze you.  The bad news is that you will never again be able to put one of the four famous brand cognacs into your mouth, as you will know now what really great cognac tastes like, and you will know that even $1500-per-bottle King whats-his-name cognac is flabby and doesn’t measure up to the simple excellence of cognac made in small batches on small farms by families of fourth generation Masters of the distiller’s art.  They make them great because their family name is on the bottle.

As I nosed it for the obligatory 20 minutes while it “breathed” (see “How to Taste Cognac“) I couldn’t help but smile as the flavors opened up like a rose blossom slowly smiling toward the sun. This is a truly extraordinary cognac.

I know the cellar master who creates this work of art. Pascal Fillioux is a fourth generation master of the art of cognac at La Pouyade, and I suspected early on that he was very talented.  But I didn’t learn until long after I met him that he is esteemed by his peers as one of the five or so best cognac cellar masters in the world.  And that day that I met him, he was across the table from me, smiling faintly in nervous anticipation,  hoping that little old me would like his cognac. That’s like Walt Disney sitting next to you on the roller coaster hoping that you will like his theme park!

Marthe Sepia is magnificent. It starts with a rich amber-orange color and a powerful nose of vanilla, banana and oak, which gives way to a warm spicy palate, multi-layered with vanilla, chocolate, honey, grape jam, tropical fruits all shooting on and off my palate as quickly as you can read this and each repeating five or six times.  This leads to a superbly mature rancio in the back of the mouth with an impossibly long finish.  I mean really, three to six minutes later, this cognac is still finishing, changing and evolving on your palate.  It’s just not natural!  But it is wonderful!

This can be a very intimidating cognac for a novice connoisseur, and is really not the place to start learning about cognac.  On the other hand, if your palate is up to it, this cognac will take you on a magnificent ride.

Mediteranian oranges, powerful rancio

I took a bottle of cognac to a party last weekend, to share with a friend that I hadn’t seen in 35 years, just in case he liked cognac, or wanted to learn.  It turns out that he is a bourbon drinker by habit, drinking only the finest sipping bourbons around.  This heartened me, as he already knows how to sip, and not gulp a fine adult beverage.  It was late in the evening and he & his wife had just slipped into the hot tub when I offered him a 40-year old Francois Voyer Extra.  He took the snifter with a large grin.  After only a moment, his wife made it clear that she wanted some private time with my friend, so I left them each with a snifter and took the bottle and my snifter inside with me.

This cognac never ceases to amaze me.  Even at 40-years old, it still has tremendous fruit flavors in it.  There are Mediterranean oranges and hints of other citrus.  The rancio is some of the most powerful I’ve ever found, yet it’s not beating you in the back of the head with an oak stick.  This is what cognac should be.

OMG!  I really wanted to slap him hard across the face and somehow make him give me back the $10 worth of cognac he had just so carelessly poured down his pie hole.

I then proceeded to tell him, as politely as possible that there is a way to ingest cognac, and many ways not to.  Fortunately he was open to new ideas, and I showed him how to increase his enjoyment of the golden nectar simply by slowing down and taking some time with it.  I took him through several cognacs and finally, about two hours later, he understood how to really enjoy cognac.

Does anybody else know a barbarian like this?