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Fahrenheit 173 - Aged Spirits

"If it's not good enough to drink slowly, then it's not worth drinking"

Four cognacs in the "XO" to "Extra" range

 18 Apr 2011  

Here's a review of four cognacs I bought for a re­cent tast­ing. I also dug out an old favourite - Bisquit VSOP - to use as a reference.

Le Reviseur XO:
Nice nose with dried fruits (prunes, figs), apple pie with cinnamon, mint, vanilla and oak. Rich, sweet, rather nice palate, citrus, mint, custard, drying, de­velops oak and a little heat. Nice finish, yet dry with mostly oak. All in all it's rather nice - and good value. (87 p)

Léopold Gourmel Age des Fleurs:
Fruity nose with dried fruits (plums, figs) and fresh citrus, also oaky with a note of mature cheese - complex, unusual but rather nice. Lively, power­ful, fairly intense palate - nice, sweet and fruity at first but drying, de­velops herbal notes and oak shavings. Hot, dry finish with mostly oak. All in all in­ter­est­ing and quite nice but a little splintered. The most expensive of these five cognacs but tied for the worst... (Ok, the least nice!) (87 p)

Bisquit VSOP:
Mild but very nice nose with oak shavings, figs and citrus. Complex, elegant palate with dried fruits and oak in a beautiful bal­ance. There are also light, fresh notes of custard, citrus and mint. Oaky, spicy, very nice finish. A very nice cognac - the nicest VSOP I've tried and also great value! Sadly, it's rather hard to find. (89 p)

Jean Fillioux Très Vieux:
Fragrant, very nice nose with oak, vanilla, cinnamon and fresh apple juice. Mild palate with oak, raisins, cinnamon and mint. It's drying and de­velops more oak (oak shavings) but also fresh notes of vanilla and citrus - very nice. Oaky, fairly dry yet nice finish. (89 p)

Delamain Vesper:
Subtle, complex nose with oak, cinnamon and black tea, also light notes of vanilla, citrus. Smooth, sweet, bal­anced palate with oak, vanilla and citrus. Very nice! Fairly dry yet very nice finish with oak and vanilla. All in all won­der­fully bal­anced. (90 p)

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