One of the main benefits of moving whiskey to every other Wednesday is the ability to review more brandies and cognacs as we integrate them more into the site’s lexicon. The cognac we have here is as such a fine addition with some good and some bad points, and some grapey points?
Yes, it might be hard to forget consider how many brandies/cognacs are either toilet water or pure oak, but they are actually made from grapes. Salignac wants to remind you of that fact – in an almost offensive way. It really is more like a weird grape liquor than any other brandy we’ve had, but at least in some ways, it’s good.
What they Say: “Most cognacs are blended or, as we French say, “married” after they are aged. But at Salignac, we marry our young cognacs before aging. Their years of intermingling in oaken casks allow time to perform its maturing miracle. Taste our secret: The longer the marriage, the mellower the Cognac.”
Taste: 4.0 – It kicks off like a regular warm bandy with a huge amount of grape flavor – almost too much to be honest.
Aftertaste: 7.0 – It gets way more chocolatey? Like honestly some Willy Wonka shit with grapes added. While subjectively it’s wrong for a cognac to do this – it is tasty and that can’t be denied.
Burn/Smooth: 3.5 – There is some burn, and it overall has a slimy kinda off texture that does not make this smooth drinking.
Aroma: 6.5 – It’s warm, and honestly the first time a brandy has really smelled like grapes. Overall it’s very nice,
Honesty: 4.0 – That color is too damn close to blood red. They also talk a bunch about marrying and the time behind that, but then don’t tell us the years. Add that up with the rest of the text and they win no awards here.
Mixability: 4.25
W/ Rocks: 4.5 – It evens everything out, but there’s weirdly too much grape. This clearly needs a bit more aging.
Sidecar: 4.0 – That is a subpar sidecar. Not much else to say.
Value: 6.0 – That’s not crazy expensive, so it’s okay. We’d even say it’s not a terrible deal being that cheap for a cognac as it’s not the worst thing to sip neat.
Google Shop Average: $21
Website: https://www.beamsuntory.com/home
Reviewer Scores:
BuffaloJern: 4.5
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Metric Score: 35.25/70 |+| Metric Average: 5.04 |+| Reviewer Average: 4.5
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Final Thoughts: It’s another subpar cognac, which is fine by us. We’ve tried a few of these by now both on and off the site, and it’s good to establish a baseline spirit. It’s relatively cheap and unique, and sure it’s not god’s gift to mankind, but there’s nothing wrong with being less than that.
I have tasted a lot of different cognacs and not all of them taste good but this one truly blew my mind. It has such a fine taste that it truly depicts what cognac is supposed to taste like.
Thanks, Greg. I agree – It is a good cognac at a great price.