Remy Martin Louis XIII Rare Cask

The newly released Remy Martin Louis XIII Rare Cask is so named because it has an unusual strength of 42.6%.  This may be unusual for Remy Martin but many cognacs have an abv of over 40% as the distillation strength of cognac is between 67 – 72%.  Whilst some cognacs will benefit from a higher strength it is usually only those, such as the Hermitage 1975 or 1989, which are single estate and where a smaller still, which will provide less rectification, has been used.  The Rare Cask Louis XIII is a blend of 1200 different cognacs so it is highly doubtful that such a blend will benefit from being a higher strength. Only the cask the cognac is stored in is a hundred years old so it would be interesting to find out just how old the cognac is!