1st Cru Home

About Us

Contact Us

 

Great Lakes Area Wine Brokerage

 

Wine Blog

Cognac Blog

 

 

Cognac Education

                 

Tasting Cognac -- Step by Step

Aging Cognac -- VS, VSOP, XO, etc.

Cognac Trivia -- Napoleon who?

How to Read Cognac Labels

What Does Grande Champagne Mean?

Cognac Quality

 

Single Vineyard Cognac

 

Marthe Cognac

Francois Voyer Cognac

Cognac Awards

 

 

For the Trade

 

Informational Brochure

 

Link to our Friends

Cognac Lovers & Wine Brokers since 1999

Napoleon Cognac & Aging Statements

 

By French Law, age cannot be put on a bottle of Cognac like it can on a bottle of Scotch Whisky.  All non-vintage Cognacs are blends of several years’ grapes, thus Cognac age is referred to as an average “Age at Tasting”. 

 

This works to the advantage of the large producers.  They can blend a few drops of a very old cognac with an ounce or two of a middle age cognac, then fill the bottle with very young cognac and call it an XO, as long as the young cognac meets the minimum aging requirements of 2.5 years in oak.

 

There are two large advantages to the producer using this method.  1) - Economy.  Using that much young cognac makes his product relatively inexpensive to produce, yet he can sell his XO for quite a bit of money and make quite a bit of profit.  2) - With the wide age range available to him, the blender has an easy job to duplicate the required flavor profile year after year.

 

The trade-off with this method is in the quality of the mass-produced cognac.  The flavor profile is one of relatively flat wood and alcohol, and the finish is short, hot and unpleasant, not unsimilar  to cheap brandy.

 

The Single Vineyard Cognacs are very different in their approach to quality.  For example, in a 15-year old Napoleon, a Single Vineyard Master Blender might use only 13—17 year old Cognacs for blending.  This makes hitting the right flavor profile much more difficult, due to variances in the harvest qualities year to year, but the payoff is in the rich & complex flavor profile and in the incredibly long, warm and pleasant finish. 

 

It is simply impossible for a mass producer of cognac to create a truly superior cognac.  It cannot be done.  What they deliver is the same thing that fast food outlets provide for their customers — always a completely predictable and mundane experience, and never a truly great experience.

 

The producers of the Cognacs of Francois Voyer and Marthe consistently serve to define the term,

“Master of the Art of Cognac”.

©2007-2010  —  1st Cru, LLC  —  (970) 566-7862  —  CONTACT

The Myth of “XO”

 

         Many of the mass produced cognacs are famous for their XO’s, which carry more than their share of aura and mystique about them.  This is because they taste so much smoother than the VS or the VSOP from the same producer.

         In reality, many of these mass produced XO’s are rarely more than 15 years old or so, with some of the most famous being only 10-12 years old.

         In Cognac terms, that is very, very young.  As you can see from the accompanying chart at the right, our Single Vineyard XO’s are much older, with other qualities even older yet.  As with any oaked spirit, older is smoother and richer.           So for the same money, why settle for a younger mass produced cognac when you can have something really special?

         If all you’ve ever eaten is hamburger, how could you know Filet Mignon?.  Taste a Single Vineyard Cognac tonight.

 

Myth #1 — XO is the best cognac.

         False.  XO is merely a name given to any particular producer’s cognac which is older than VS, VSOP or Napoleon, and younger than any of his other cognacs such as, Extra, Tres Vieux, or Ancestrale to name just a few.      

 

Myth #2 — XO is the only cognac to drink straight.

         False.  All cognac is made to be sipped straight.  If the cognac in your hand is too harsh or hot  to drink straight, then it is an inferior, probably mass produced cognac.  Remember, just because it has a famous name, does not make it a great cognac.

 

Myth #3 — You must warm an XO with your hands on the glass before you drink it.

         Only partially false.  The warmth of your hands on the glass has nothing to do with improving the tasting experience of the cognac.  What you are actually doing is allowing the cognac to “breathe” for a few minutes, exposing it to the air so that it can oxidize a bit, thus opening up new flavors that would otherwise have been missed.  See How to Taste Cognac for more information on this myth.

 

Myth #4 — You must warm your XO with a small flame before drinking it.

         Absolutely false.  DO NOT DO THIS!  Your cognac is already distilled.  You do not need to cook it.  We don’t know where this myth started, but it needs to die a natural death and disappear.  Putting a flame to your cognac will do nothing but put soot on the glass and cause the cognac to lose whatever fruit, flower or spice flavors it may have had.

Any Name

 

                 After a Cognac has aged for 6.5 years in oak barrels, a producer is free to name the cognac by any name he wants.  Witness the great Cognacs from Marthe, with names like Aquarelle, Fauve and Sepia.

                 These term are derived from oil painting, as the producer wanted to honor the family matriarch, who painted in oils.

All About Cognac Aging