A cognac? On Honest Booze Reviews? Yes despite the debacle that was us trying to break into things we don’t typically review with our brandy reviews of the VSOP and XO – it’s high time we start including brandies and congnacs into our spirits rosters. And despite E&J garnering the most views on a single review – lets do something a bit higher on the shelf.
Now I said higher shelf, but as we all know VS is actually often below VSOP and XO as it’s aged for a lot shorter in terms of time. However because it comes from the Cognac region of France – it’s quality is much improved than E&J’s offerings. While I may disagree that France is often terrible at wine – when they put the grapes to other purposes they do quite well.
What they Say: “Legend has it the Napoleon held Emmanuel Courvoisier’s cognac in such high esteem that he took with him hundreds of bottle to enjoy during his years in exile. The reserve became known as ‘Le Cognac de Napoleon’ a description still proudly borne today on all Courvoisier cognac”
Taste: 6.0 – Here it’s nice and enjoyable.
Aftertaste: 5.5 – However there’s a twinge of bad, followed by a long aftertaste of goodness.
Burn/Smooth: 5.0 – With that twinge in the aftertaste is a bit of burn, but being just a VS means I can’t fault it too hard.
Aroma: 5.0 – It’s pleasant, but I need to dig the nose deep to get flavor.
Honesty: 6.0 – It’s French, but it does try to claim Napoleon. Which works because despite being known for just being short – that man had testicles the size of the countries he conquered. Cognac is also known as gentlemanly, but certainly not the VS level I choose to get us started on brandy/cognac reviews.
Mixability: 7.0
W/ Rocks: 7.0 – It just makes everything better. There’s no bad twinge and the flavors are just magnified. Make no mistake – this is not a cognac you take neat.
Value: 5.0 – It’s certainly a bit price-y and who knows maybe with other brandy and cognac we can find better deals, but not so here.
Google Shop Average: $32
Website: http://courvoisier.com/
Reviewer Scores:
BuffaloJern: 5.5
Want to compare this spirit against our archives? Visit our statistics page.
Metric Score: 39.5/70 |+| Metric Average: 5.64 |+| Reviewer Average: 5.5
New to Honest Booze Reviews, or just wondering how we score? See our FAQ/Review Policy.
Final Thoughts: I’m glad that since E&J I have managed to try other brandies and cognacs in order to give myself a more thorough primer into them, allowing me to begin properly reviewing them. (When I’m not just reviewing more scotch)
I’d be curious to see a review of an Armagnac as well, since they are less well known, and are usually supposed to be cheaper than their cousins from Cognac.
Nice review. I generally dont drink VS and reserve it solely for cooking.