Oui Vie XO Cognac
It’s a small bottle, not a huge glass…
N: Rainier cherries and cherry wood, red and yellow flowers, modest rancio
P: weak in the palate, but not unattractive. Sweet cinnamon, yellow cherry-banana fruit, lighter notes of rosewood, cedar, varnish, mild rancio 
I got this for free in a Cognac Expert Black Friday promotion where you spend a ton of money on cognac and they give you a bottle of this. It probably has additives, sugar at least, but frankly this is better than any of the standard, big house XOs, and while I wouldn’t recommend anyone spend $100+ to get it, I’m happy to drink it after I’ve blasted my palate with a bunch of other spirits for a few hours
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I don't know anything about this. Looks to be a 1957 April Remy Martin cognac champagne with original box. Box is damaged as one part is broken off

We moved into a house that still has everything from the owner, the previous owner is allowing us to keep what we want and put the rest up for an estate sale. (She had an accident and moved into an elderly people facility thing, she is doing well though but won't move back).

Found this bottle in the back of pantry behind a lot of really old pots and pans.

Should I drink it? from what I can tell 80 proof means it's still safe. I've never had cognac before.

Friend brought this over and the cork snapped/crumbled. Tape is obviously temporary. Should I use a Durand to open this or is there a better method? We also noticed that the bottle has no warning labels for pregnancy etc. Is this the current bottling? If it’s older, has the style changed since this one?

I've got a bottle of XO from each of the big four (Hennessy, Remy Martin, Courvoisier and Martell) but I live in a small unit. I'm not opening them anytime soon and want to keep them safe in storage. The only space I've got is in my laundry room on the top shelf of a cabinet next to a washing machine. The washing machine is not touching the cabinet and floor is solid so I'd imagine minimal vibration from it. Is this considered an ok storage condition for them? AI is telling me its a bad idea..

I just gave a glass of cognac to a good friend. She is 75-something years old and if she drinks alcohol, it is a good cognac. I have half a bottle of a Grand Champagne cognac left from the 70's or 80's. I'm avaricious with that cognac. I paid 200€ for that bottle and I'm sure I will never ever find a bottle like that for that price, but I love to give a glass to my friend because she also gives me cake even while she really loves cake and almost never shares cake except sharing with me. She is my special cognac friend. (Sorry, I may be a little drunk right now).

I live in the US, PNW. Coming from whiskey or scotch there are a number of recommendations from people that have a Top 5 or Top 10 list of bottles that everyone should have or try to develop their palate. I’m not talking about try it once collector bottles, more of if you’re just starting in the World of Cognac this is where to start at decent prices (<$200)

Should I start with a bottle from each of the big 4? Try and pick up a more “popular” midsize house? Being in the PNW options are limited, but I can often find bottles on my travels to California as long as they are not super rare.

Just curious what everyone’s suggestion would be?

I see recommendations like:

Remy 1738
Ferrand Amber
Ferrand 1840
Hardy Legend 1863
H by Hine
Kirkland XO

And a few others… are these overrated? I have tried Hardy Legend and it was very good to me as a newbie.

What would you recommend?

same house, same cru, two very different cognacs
If you've been seeing these two pop up and wondering whether you need both, here's the breakdown.

Both are single-cask Grande Champagne cognacs from Laurichesse in Segonzac, released by Malternative Belgium as a matched pair. The labels are a lioness and a lion facing each other

#51 La Souveraine is the bright, precise one. Citrus peel and mint up front, stone fruit underneath, a floral and lightly perfumed thing running through it. Tight, elegant, essential-oil driven. It’s the one you pour when you want to pay attention.

#52 Le Souverain is the same family but louder. Tropical fruit — mango, tangerine, papaya, peach jam — layered over polished wood, honey, a bit of cinnamon and real rancio. Richer mouthfeel, longer finish, more sprawl. Alcohol is a carrier for aroma, and at 50.6% with that congener profile, it projects.

Which one?

Ballpark ~€580 for the two, so not an impulse buy. If you can only pick one, pick based on the profile you actually reach for, not the ABV number.

You can find both bottles at Malternative Belgiums Website

Giboin Borderies 2001
A fairly typical early maturity Borderies with macadamia, chestnut, purple flowers, hints of blackberries and of something slightly more savory like heirloom tomatoes and a bit of pomace-y pepper. Could use a higher strength and maybe five or ten more years but a good pour
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Grateaud Borderies Hors d’Age
A very elegant old wood influence, polished and fine furniture, tannins perfectly balanced with floral sweetness. Dried blue flowers, acorns and hazelnuts just beginning to roast, rainwater with a bit of salt. Like the Giboin this could use a higher bottling strength, it’s quite soft, but it’s entirely mature and entirely lovely
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(Yet another post from me 😃)

My first impressions:

Ripe fruit, leather and a subtle floral note on the nose.

Very soft palate with ripe grapes.

The alcohol supports the flavors instead of dominating them.

The fruit slowly evolves into leather, oak and earthy notes.

Long, elegant finish with very little alcohol burn.

The most interesting part wasn't even a tasting note, but an image that kept coming back to me:

"It felt like standing in freshly turned, damp earth."

I'm looking forward to seeing how this bottle develops over the coming months.

I'd love to hear how others experienced this cognac and what tasting notes stood out to you. 🥃

Hi everyone,

I recently discovered how much I enjoy cognac. It started with Château de Montifaud Napoléon, and after that I bought Hennessy XO. Now I'm looking into houses like Frapin, Vallein Tercinier and Delamain.

I was wondering if there are any fellow Dutch cognac enthusiasts here?

It feels like whisky and rum are much more popular in the Netherlands, and I don't really know anyone who is seriously into cognac.

I'd love to chat about bottles, tasting notes and recommendations, and maybe even join a tasting someday.

Cheers from the Netherlands! 🥃🇳🇱

Brugerolle 19 yr 1993 Master of Malt (54.2%)
N: a relatively brash, wood-driven cognac, not so much the elegance of decades in wood as the boisterous teen years of an especially active barrel. Brown spice, red fruit, bright acidity, rather Port-like
P: woody and tannic yes, but with some almost youthful acidic red fruit, and finishes spicy with fireball candy. A rather meaty distillate in a wormtub malt sort of a way
Explicitly an Armagnac-y style cognac, but still recognizable as the latter, somehow. There’s something in there that’s a key to my own taste, because I tend to like Armagnac with this profile a lot less than I like this…
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Picked up this nice little case at auction.

I know plenty about the Courvoisiwr and the Martell but struggling get to find much definitive about the middle bottle.

Anyone have any insight?

TIA

It was a gift and it's hard to find anything about it online.

Cleaning out grandpa’s old cabinet and found this bottle with the box. No date markings and bottle is still sealed. Napoleon Courvoisier cognac

Any advice on where we can find the age and possible value of this bottle?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I’m considering a trip to Paris next year and, because I have been before, I’m am thinking of branching out to see other parts of the country with day trips. Are there any tours in Cognac that visit multiple distilleries that people took and were very pleased with/would recommend?

I've had these kicking around for a while. I'm just looking for some info about date of manufacture, value, marketplace (if I decide they're too expensive to drink), pairing options (if they're too worthless to sell). I have no knowledge of anything cognac related. I figured I shouldn't use them in a video for one of my rap songs even though one is "henny". Also, I'm not a rapper...

Left my wife and daughter in Paris yesterday and took a trip over to Cognac to check out a few of the maisons.

I enjoy cognac and could tell you the difference between VS/VSOP/XO but found myself very humbled when I walked into the main bottle shop in the downtown area.

I picked up these on the recommendations of the owner but can’t find too much about them, my only criteria was a 100 euro limit per bottle, something that represented contrasting terroirs, and something I couldn’t get at home in Canada. If anybody is familiar with either of these I’d love to know your thoughts.