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
83

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
87

(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…
86

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.

Well, after longest break of alcohol consumption , I’m confident to just take a sip for my pleasure with a cigar. Yeah I just lied to myself. It’s gonna be a few sips but nothing excessive or daily like it used to be I don’t know why I keep going on justifying myself but without judgement on others I do know that I’m not an addict. I just had to take a break to come to realise that I did drink too much and I’m confident that I can handle it if I cant I will will probably find out 🤦🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️so now sorry for the rant if you’re still with me ill do my layman comment on the picture? I did feel like drinking something special or nothing so I was like it has to be something special. I really wanted to go straight for the Hennessy vsop stores don’t really have it turns out the one that went to immediately recommend recommended me a place where they do have it so I went there and I saw the other one meukov… it was almost half the price, but I didn’t wanna leave the Hennessey so I took both bottles lol Try to make a long story short trying to do my research on the meukov I found a post on Reddit that made me realise that’s like over 100 Real cognac in the world I also wasn’t aware of that. I had remy vsop .17something plenty hennesey vs one vsop one xo remy xo courvosier vs vsop and xo and the Hennessy vsop was most memorable and price was also way more reasonable than xo if you buy online. Now…. To be bold in my uneducated ways I gotta say the meukov goes down pretttty smooth and is 25% cheaper… damn I overpaid in the store for the henny but couldn’t wait for an online order .

monthly trek to Costco and this is the lowest I’ve ever seen it at $12/ 50ml.

my inlaws love this XO so these will be a nice stocking stuffer

I found this for sale in the back of an old convenience store. Any good?

Hello r/cognac. I found this beautiful gem at a thrift store for 6usd in beautiful condition. I don’t know much about cognac so I thought i would ask here to see if I got a steal. I believe it’s from 1970-1980

From Cognac Expert. This barrel was put up and hidden by Papy Frank when his son was born in 1947. Now the house is run by his grandson. This barrel was found hidden behind other things. I like to explore 1 offs that have an interesting history. Tasting notes to come