1724 was a long time ago. The country we are posting from was not a thing™ at the time this company existed. With that much history, it does lend itself to the concept of whether we can truly judge such a thing. Well we might have only been around for less than a decade (bajeezus not by much though) but yes – yes we can judge them, and we say nay.
Nay onto your idea that being from the champagne region makes you better. Nay that your House has captured the heart of this spirit in your VSOP, any onto charging 44 dollars for something that would be better spent a mere few hundred miles north of you from a small island country.
What they Say: “Since 1724, the House of Remy Martin has been driven by one quest to capture the Heart of Cognac – Fine Champagne Cognac. With always the same signature style since its creation, this vibrant gold VSOP is smooth, rich and perfectly balanced, revealing ripe stone fruit and vanilla notes.”
Taste: 3.5 – It’s a bit of raisin like grape and cheap booze. There’s not a lot of complexity or any sort of warming/mellow flavor like you’d get in something with more wood and age.
Aftertaste: 6.0 – The aftertaste does linger long after, and that aspect is nice and sweet but is very much like having eaten a box of raisins. The initial part though carries that whiff of cheap booze though.
Burn/Smooth: 6.0 – While it won’t warm the cockles of your heart and soul – it mercifully is smooth going down.
Aroma: 5.0 – That is present. Very much in your face. However, while the sweet brandy grapes are there, the seedy underbelly of yuck and liquor is too. Overall around par for brandy though as those can often be horrendous.
Honesty: 5.0 – Having never encountered in the wild and only on the bottles of bullshit we review – not sure if stone fruit is even real. Gold – it’s brown, we couldn’t give 2 shits about coloring, but it ain’t amber gold. Overall the text is fairly standard and given the age that’s actually a welcome sight that they’ve not droned on endlessly.
Mixability: 2.75
W/ Rocks: 3.0 – It’s colder, and kind of worse. You lose a lot of that grape taste, and it’s just not enjoyable to drink.
Sidecar: 2.5 – That’s not a good sidecar, in fact, some would say it’s bad.
Value: 2.0 – Uhh, what? This is 44 dollars, not like 1/4 of that? JFC. We got a smaller bottle to test and the only saving grace here is that there is less to linger in the bar. If you have bought this to genuinely enjoy a nice cognac – you have been ripped off.
Google Shop Average: $44
Website: https://www.remymartin.com/
Reviewer Scores:
BuffaloJern: 2.0
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Metric Score: 30.25/70 |+| Metric Average: 4.32 |+| Reviewer Average: 2.0
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Final Thoughts: Once again we find ourselves wildly differing from metrics to the opinion this week (as we did last). In the end, though it’s because while there might be some aspects of our scores where this is standard or just slightly above par – where it matters, where it counts it fails. The simple fact is that this is not enjoyable to drink in really any context that matters. If it’s not good at doing that, and it’s not even a cheap “at least I can get drunk” then who the fuck cares?
Wow, I am so surprised you don’t like this. I love remy on ice in the summer. It’s not bad neat with a few drops of water. But taste is super subjective…….keep up the reviews