Brandy Archives

August 22, 2026August 22, 2026

Pasquinet VS Cognac

Pasquinet VS

Pasquinet is a family-rooted Grande Champagne producer/distiller based at Domaine du Foucaudat in Juillac-le-Coq, with estate vineyards, its own distilling tradition, old stocks, and a history stretching back well before the Pasquinet brand itself was created. The primary terroir is Grande Champagne, Cognac’s premier cru, with an estate size of about 22 hectares (54 acres).

Pasquinet Map

Pasquinet says Domaine du Foucaudat has been a family wine property since 1860. The modern Cognac operation, however, is associated with Jean Ricard, born January 23, 1906, in France’s eastern Pyrenees. He originally ran a successful renovation/construction business. Work on several Cognac houses brought him to the region, where he became fascinated with distillation. He subsequently acquired Domaine du Foucaudat and spent years learning and refining the craft of distillation.

After World War II, Jean’s children Gilbert and Jeannette Ricard took over the family business. In 1943 they created the Pasquinet Cognac trademark, describing it as a symbol of strength and renewal following the war. The brand apparently enjoyed enough success in France and elsewhere in Europe that the family constructed a substantial bottling and packaging facility next to the estate.

The next generation was Patrick Ricard, who assumed control in 1985. Interestingly, Patrick had previously worked as a dealer in antiques and fine art. Pasquinet credits his aesthetic interests with influencing both the house’s presentation and its approach to Cognac.

Then came Nicolas Ricard. After working internationally in Europe and South America, Nicolas returned to the family operation and has represented the new generation since 2012.

The Domaine du Foucaudat estate is just south of Segonzac, essentially ground zero for Grande Champagne Cognac. Grande Champagne is prized for its highly chalky soils and eaux-de-vie that can be extraordinarily floral and fine, but often require prolonged maturation before reaching their potential.

Is Pasquinet an estate Cognac or a négociant? Both, apparently. Pasquinet owns Grande Champagne vineyards and distills Cognac at Domaine du Foucaudat. But it also operates within a commercial structure associated with Euro-Négoce, whose address is itself listed as Le Foucaudat in Juillac-le-Coq. So I would not assume every bottle of Pasquinet consists exclusively of grapes grown on their 22 hectares unless the particular bottle makes that claim, which the VS does not.

Pasquinet VS Cognac

The house says this VS is assembled from selected eaux-de-vie traditionally distilled and aged in Limousin oak for approximately two to four years. It presents a medium golden amber in the glass. The nose delivers fresh fruit, particularly orange peel, and vanilla. These continue on the palate, plus some young oak, honied sweetness and a peppery finish. Very approachable, and suitable for both sipping neat and cocktails. The ABV is the usual 40%.

Listen to my podcast about brandy, Cognac, and Armagnac here.

A note about brandy vs. Cognac: brandy is a liquor distilled from wine and aged in wood. (Brandy can be made from fruits other than grapes as well, but that’s a story for another time.) Cognac is brandy that specifically comes from the town of Cognac and the delimited surrounding areas in western France. (The one which has the most favorable soil and geographical conditions is Grande Champagne.) So, all Cognacs are brandy, but not all brandies are Cognac. For more detail on brandy and Cognac, click here.

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August 21, 2026August 22, 2026

Tycoon VS Cognac

Tycoon VS

Celebrity-backed brandy and Cognac is a notable and growing trend, heavily propelled by hip-hop culture and high-profile music and sports partnerships. High-visibility labels like Jay-Z’s D’USSÉ and 50 Cent’s Branson Cognac have proven that celebrity ownership can turn niche or traditional French spirits into major market contenders.

Tycoon is just such a celebrity Cognac, this one involving Earl “E-40” Stevens, a longtime California rapper, record-label owner, and entrepreneur. The spirit is produced in the Cognac region of France, of course. But I cannot find reliable evidence identifying the actual distiller/négociant supplying the eaux-de-vie. Tycoon doesn’t identify the Cognac house behind the liquid, or really any other details. Continue reading “Tycoon VS Cognac”

August 20, 2026August 22, 2026

Couvignac VS Cognac

Couvignac VS

Couvignac is produced by Distillerie de Chevanceaux/SVE (Société des Vins et Eaux-de-Vie), a long-established family distillery in Saint-Palais-de-Négrignac, south of Cognac. It is a substantial, multigenerational, family-owned Cognac distiller, grower, blender, cellar operator, and spirits producer whose roots lie in supplying and producing eaux-de-vie rather than building an internationally famous Cognac house name. The Cognac distillery at the present site was founded in 1896 by Louis Gautriaud, formerly a bouilleur de cru—essentially a grower-distiller. His son Ernest took over after 1926, followed by grandson Robert after 1956. The company’s own modern family history traces the family’s involvement in growing, distilling, aging, and blending Cognac back further, to 1830. Julien Nau and his sister Marie represent the latest generation of the family. Continue reading “Couvignac VS Cognac”

August 19, 2026August 19, 2026

Monnet VS Cognac

Maison Monnet is one of those Cognac houses that is much better known in Europe than in the United States. It has a legitimate historical pedigree, an unusually interesting connection to European history, and a recognizable house style built around fruit, flowers, warmth, and softness rather than aggressive oak. Monnet itself describes this as its “sunny” style.

The house traces its origins to 1838, but the business that became Monnet actually began as the Société des Propriétaires Vinicoles de Cognac, a cooperative organized by Pierre-Antoine de Salignac and local growers. Jean-Gabriel Monnet took control in 1897, and the J.-G. Monnet name began appearing as a brand shortly thereafter. Continue reading “Monnet VS Cognac”

August 18, 2026August 19, 2026

Bache Gabrielsen VS Tre Kors Cognac

Bache Gabrielsen VS

Bache Gabrielsen VS Tre Kors (“Three Crosses”) is a particularly interesting VS because there’s a genuine story behind the name, and the Cognac itself is more characterful than I’d expect from a basic VS [Very Special].

Bache Gabrielsen is unusual among Cognac houses because its roots are Norwegian rather than French. Thomas Bache-Gabrielsen came to Cognac from Norway in 1903, at about age 20, initially to develop his family’s wine-and-spirits business. He met his future wife Odette, the daughter of local winegrowers, and decided to remain in France. In 1905, Thomas and fellow Norwegian Peter Rustad bought the existing Cognac house A. Edmond Dupuy, which dated to 1852. That became Maison Bache Gabrielsen. (The origin story of Bache Gabrielsen is curiously similar to that of the Cognac house founded by Jens Reidar Larsen.)

Continue reading “Bache Gabrielsen VS Tre Kors Cognac”

August 13, 2026August 19, 2026

1920 Brandy

1920 Immature Brandy — 1920 Brandy. Click here for tasting notes.

1920 Brandy

Carvalho, Ribeiro & Ferreira is one of the historic names in Portuguese wine-based spirits, and 1920 is its inexpensive, everyday brandy rather than its prestigious old aguardentes. It has a surprisingly tangled history, though—and there are some contradictory stories in circulation about exactly how the name “1920” originated.

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August 11, 2026August 18, 2026

Trésor Fédéral VSOP Brandy

Trésor Fédéral

Trésor Fédéral VSOP is an entry-level Moldovan grape brandy that has only recently appeared in the U.S. market. It isn’t widely known among brandy enthusiasts, and there is relatively little publicly available information compared with established brandy names like St-Rémy, Torres, or a slew of Cognac producers. Here’s what I pieced together from importer information, retailers, and Moldovan brandy traditions.

One of the bottle’s strongest selling points is that its made in Moldova, one of Europe’s oldest wine-producing countries. Winemaking dates back there roughly 5,000 years. The country has over 100,000 hectares [247,000 acres] of vineyards and a climate remarkably similar to Bordeaux. Many excellent Eastern European brandies come from Moldova, although they are much less famous than Cognac or Armagnac.

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August 10, 2026August 19, 2026

Larsen Aqua Ignis Cognac

Larsen is one of Cognac’s more distinctive houses—not because it is one of the oldest, but because it combines a Nordic heritage with a very elegant, fruit-driven Cognac style. While houses such as Hennessy, Martell, Rémy Martin, and Courvoisier trace their roots back to the 18th century, Larsen was founded in 1926 by a Norwegian adventurer, making it a relative newcomer with an unusually international identity.

The rather unassuming distillery. Photo: Rolf Johansen.

Continue reading “Larsen Aqua Ignis Cognac”

August 8, 2026August 20, 2026

Ferrand Cognac 1840 Original Formula

Ferrand 1840

Cognac has been sold under the Ferrand name since the 18th century, spanning 10 generations of producers, beginning with the birth of the first Elie Ferrand in the small town of Segonzac in 1630 (nine more Elies would follow). In 1989, Alexandre Gabriel partnered with Pierre Ferrand, the living heir of the family, to develop a line of Cognacs. Once Pierre Ferrand retired in 1993, Gabriel became sole proprietor.

In short order, Gabriel bought the Logis d’Angeac distillery, built in 1776 and located in the heart of the Grande Champagne region of Cognac. He also purchased the 18th century Chateau de Bonbonnet, once owned by the Martell family, and turned it into his home as well as Ferrand’s state-of-the-art blending facility and offices. The company owns vineyards, restores historic copper pot stills, and performs production largely in-house.

Photo: Alexandre Gabriel

Continue reading “Ferrand Cognac 1840 Original Formula”

August 8, 2026August 19, 2026

Carlos I Brandy

Carlos I Brandy de Jerez Solera Gran Reserva

If Cognac represents the pinnacle of French grape brandy, Carlos I Brandy de Jerez is one of Spain’s great answers to it. Produced by Bodegas Osborne, it is arguably the flagship premium Brandy de Jerez, and has done more than almost any other brand to elevate Spanish brandy from an everyday digestif to a world-class sipping spirit.

Founded in 1772, Osborne is one of Spain’s oldest continuously operating wine and spirits companies. It was established in El Puerto de Santa María, in Cádiz province, at the heart of the Sherry Triangle. The company remains family-owned after more than 250 years.

Bodegas Osborne. Photo: Alvaro Barba Lopez

The company traces its roots to Thomas Osborne Mann, an English merchant who settled in Andalusia to trade sherry. During the 18th and 19th centuries, British merchants played an enormous role in developing the export market for Sherry wines, and Osborne became one of the most successful.

Continue reading “Carlos I Brandy”

August 6, 2026August 18, 2026

St. Rémy Signature French Brandy

Rémy Martin is one of the world’s oldest and best known Cognac brands, with selections that range, at my local liquor store at least, from the $13 St. Remy French brandy to the $9000 Rémy Martin Louis XIII Time Collection: City of Lights – 1900. (I have tried one of these, but not both.)

Rémy Martin was founded in 1724 in the Cognac region of France by Paul-Emile Rémy Martin. He was born in 1695 near Rouillac in southwestern France, the son of a vine grower. At 19, he married the daughter of a local notary, and 10 years later, in 1724, he established a Cognac trading house. On his death in 1773, the business passed to his grandson, also named Rémy, who was also the local tax collector. In time, his son inherited the business, which saw a four-fold increase in the region’s trade between 1810 and the early 1820s. In 1841, Paul-Emile-Rémy Martin (the family gave just about every male heir the same name, apparently) assumed control and oversaw even greater growth. He introduced the innovation of selling in bottles as well as the traditional casks. An early and skillful marketer, he added a logo to the bottles and cases; a centaur after Sagittarius, Martin’s zodiac sign, and registered the firm’s first trademarks in 1874. Following him, as so often happens in dynastic families, the fifth-generation proprietor nearly bankrupted the operation.
Continue reading “St. Rémy Signature French Brandy”

June 6, 2026August 19, 2026

Gran Gala VS Cognac

Is this one of the best bargains in French brandy? Maybe. Maybe not.

When most spirits enthusiasts hear the name Gran Gala, they immediately think of the popular Italian orange liqueur often compared to Grand Marnier. What many drinkers don’t realize is that Gran Gala also produces an authentic French cognac—a surprisingly affordable bottle. At a time when many well-known cognac brands command prices of $40, $50, or significantly more for their entry-level offerings, Gran Gala VS often sells for less than $25. That price alone makes it worthy of a closer look.

Continue reading “Gran Gala VS Cognac”

April 6, 2026August 19, 2026

Germain-Robin XO Brandy

Germain-Robin XO Brandy

The Maverick That Redefined American Brandy

In the world of fine spirits, few American producers have challenged Old World orthodoxy as boldly—or as successfully—as Germain-Robin. Long before “craft distilling” became a marketing buzzword, Germain-Robin was quietly rewriting the rules of brandy in Northern California, proving that greatness didn’t have to come from Cognac to rival it.

The story begins in 1982 with an unlikely partnership between Ansley Coale, a California rancher and former academic, and Hubert Germain-Robin, a French distiller from a Cognac-producing family dating back to the 18th century. Their meeting—reportedly by chance along a California highway while Germain-Robin was hitchhiking—sparked a shared vision: to apply traditional French distillation techniques to exceptional California wine grapes.

That decision changed everything.

Continue reading “Germain-Robin XO Brandy”

September 30, 2025August 19, 2026

Wollersheim Distillery Press House Brandy

Wollersheim Press House Brandy. Click here for tasting notes.

Wollersheim Brandy

Wollersheim Winery is located on a scenic hillside overlooking the Wisconsin River, across from Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, about 30 miles northwest of Madison. In addition to the winery, the property now includes a distillery and a bistro.

Wollersheim is considered one of the more established wineries in Wisconsin, and is known for producing both wine and distilled spirits on site.

The Winery

The vineyards were first planted by Agoston Haraszthy (a Hungarian nobleman) in the 1840s. However, finding Wisconsin winters too inhospitable for what he wanted to do. Haraszthy left the state in December of 1849, and headed west. He brought close to 100,000 grapevine cuttings from Europe, (predictably, mostly vines from Hungary) to Sonoma, California, in 1852. This was the introduction of the first European vines and grape varieties to California. He then founded the first commercial winery in California, Buena Vista Winery, in 1857, and went on to be known as “The father of California viticulture.”

Portrait_of_the_Hungarian_Count_Agoston_Haraszthy — Agoston Haraszthy

Following Haraszthy, German immigrant Peter Kehl took over. He planted American grape species better suited to the cold climate, and built a winery in 1876. In the late 1800s, Kehl’s son Jacob made brandy as well as wine, mostly used to fortify some of the wines, much like Port, rather than as a stand-alone spirit. But after Jacob’s death in 1899 and a difficult winter, the vineyard/winery operations ceased, and it reverted to a conventional farm.

In 1972, Robert and JoAnn Wollersheim purchased the property from a Kehl’s great-grandson, and began restoring it as a working winery. The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places as “Kehl Winery” in 1976.

Philippe Coquard, from the Beaujolais region of France, arrived at Wollersheim in 1984 as part of an agriculture exchange. A year later he became the winemaker. He later married Julie Wollersheim, the daughter of Robert and JoAnn, and continues to co-own and operate the facility.

The Wollersheim cave. Photo: Karin Miller

Continue reading “Wollersheim Distillery Press House Brandy”

August 23, 2024August 19, 2026

H by Hine

H by Hine VSOP Cognac

H by Hine is a selection from Hine Cognac, a distinguished brand with a rich history which traces its origins back to the 18th century. Thomas Hine, a young Englishman from Dorset, traveled to France to learn French and the art of making cognac. He settled in the town of Jarnac, in the heart of the Cognac region, where he fell in love with and subsequently married Françoise Elisabeth Delamain, the daughter of a famous cognac négociant (a person or firm that sells or ships wine as a wholesaler).

Hine was made a partner in his father-in-law’s business, and developed a reputation for seeking out only the finest cognac. He expanded what was to become the traditional business of the Hine company: making bespoke cognacs for English wine merchants. In 1817, Thomas Hine officially took over the family business, renaming it Thomas Hine & Co. Continue reading “H by Hine”