Category: Review

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Voyer VS Cognac Review

François Voyer VS Cognac.
François Voyer VS Cognac. Click here for tasting notes.

François Voyer VS Cognac

Cellar master Pierre Vaudon took over the Voyer Cognac house from the founding family after working on its blends for many years, and now owns it with his wife Anne-Marie.

François Voyer is in Verrières, right in Grande Champagne, the premier cru of Cognac. The family’s viticultural roots there go back roughly 200 years, while actual distillation by the Chauchet-Voyer family is generally dated to the 1870s. Paul André was among the relatively unusual growers of the late 19th century who distilled his own wine rather than simply selling it to a négociant. So, Voyer was able to amass stocks of its own mature eaux-de-vie rather than functioning primarily as a brand buying young spirits and assembling them.

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Brutocao Quadriga 2017 Review

Brutocao Quadriga Red Blend 2017.
Brutocao Quadriga. Click here for tasting notes.

Brutocao Quadriga

Irv Bliss’ early years as a farmer were occupied with growing pears, prunes, walnuts, and a large family garden just outside of Healdsburg, in Sonoma County, California. Although successful, for years Bliss nursed the vision of planting a vineyard in Mendocino, which he believed to be one of the best places around to grow grapes. In 1943, he purchased a plot of land in southern Mendocino County, and immediately planted the vineyard of his dreams. In the early days, in addition to growing grapes on the property, Bliss farmed figs and raised sheep and cattle. At some point in the 1970s, all 100 acres of the land was converted to grape production, mostly Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel.

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Pasquinet VS Cognac Review

Pasquinet VS Cognac.
Pasquinet VS Cognac. Click here for tasting notes.

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). Continue reading “Pasquinet VS Cognac Review”

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Tycoon VS Cognac Review

Tycoon VS Cognac. Click here for tasting notes.

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 VS 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.

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Couvignac VS Cognac Review

Couvignac VS Cognac.
Couvignac VS Cognac. Click here for tasting notes.

Couvignac VS is produced by Distillerie de Chevanceaux/SVE (Société des Vins et Eaux-de-Vie), a long-established family distillery in Saint-Palais-de-Négrignac. 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 Review”

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Monnet VS Cognac Review

Monnet VS Cognac.
Monnet VS Cognac. Click here for tasting notes.

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.

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Bache Gabrielsen VS Review

Bache Gabrielsen VS Tre Kors Cognac.
Bache Gabrielsen VS Tre Kors Cognac. Click here for tasting notes.

Bache Gabrielsen VS is a particularly interesting Cognac 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.)

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Fédéral VSOP Review

Trésor Fédéral VSOP.
Trésor Fédéral VSOP. Click here for tasting notes.

Trésor Fédéral VSOP Brandy 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.

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Larsen Aqua Ignis Review

Larsen Aqua Ignis Cognac.
Larsen Aqua Ignis Cognac. Click here for tasting notes.

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. Continue reading “Larsen Aqua Ignis Review”

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Ferrand 1840 Review

Ferrand Cognac 1840 Original Formula.
Ferrand Cognac 1840. Click here for tasting notes.

Ferrand Cognac 1840 Cognac

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. Continue reading “Ferrand 1840 Review”

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Carlos I Brandy Review

Carlos I Brandy de Jerez Solera Gran Reserva.
Carlos I Brandy de Jerez Solera Gran Reserva. Click here for tasting notes.

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.

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St. Rémy Signature Brandy Review

St. Rémy Signature French Brandy.
St. Rémy Signature French Brandy. Click here for tasting notes.

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.)

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Taittinger Prestige Rosé Review

Taittinger Prestige Rosé NV.
Taittinger Prestige Rosé NV. Click here for tasting notes.

Taittinger Prestige Rosé NV

Few Champagne houses combine elegance, history, and consistency as successfully as Taittinger. Among the Grandes Marques, it has long stood apart for one defining reason: its unusually high proportion of Chardonnay, which gives virtually every wine in its portfolio a lighter, finer, and more graceful personality than many competitors. If Bollinger is muscular, Krug profound, and Pol Roger aristocratic, Taittinger is often described as the most elegant and refined of the major houses.

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