Cognac Blog

Most of the visitors to our little website get here by querying about the taste of cognac, or else they want to know HOW to taste cognac.  We give a good primer on the tasting page which should be required reading for all novice connoisseurs who really want to learn about cognac.  But the question then becomes, “What cognac do I start with to learn?”

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.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 10:11 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.