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Category: Learning about Brandy

Understanding VSOP and XO Cognac: A Deeper Dive into Age and Quality

Posted / in Learning about Brandy, Trade Training and tagged , , , ,

When exploring the world of Cognac, two terms often encountered are VSOP (Very Superior Old Pale) and XO (Extra Old). These labels indicate the age of the youngest eau-de-vie in the blend—four years for VSOP and ten years for XO. However, the story behind these labels is far more nuanced, especially when considering the practices of major producers versus smaller, artisanal distillers.

The Reality of VSOP and XO Cognac

Historically, VSOP and XO cognacs represented significant quality and ageing. XO, in particular, used to indicate a blend where the average age was around 25 years. However, due to commercial pressures, many mass-produced XO cognacs today contain spirits that are much younger, often barely meeting the ten year minimum. This shift has led to a broad spectrum of quality within these categories, making it challenging for consumers to gauge the true value and character of the cognac they are purchasing.

Why Hermitage Cognac Stands Apart

At Hermitage Cognac, we have chosen to eschew these generic labels in favour of age statements and vintages. This decision is rooted in our commitment to authenticity and transparency. Unlike the large houses that blend hundreds of different eaux de vie, Hermitage focuses on single estate cognacs from the premier cru region of Grande Champagne. This ensures that each bottle offers a pure, unadulterated expression of the terroir and technique behind it.

Our entry level Hermitage 10 Year Old Grande Champagne Cognac is an exceptional choice. It is barrel aged for a minimum of ten years and is refined, luxurious and unblended, a spirit which far exceeds young generic blends with a minimum age requirement of only four years. In comparison, our 10 year old cognac offers a depth and complexity that only comes from much longer ageing in oak casks.

Hermitage 20 year old Grande Champagne Cognac has a minimum barrel age of 20 years, thus making it a superior choice to XO blends whose minimum age requirement is only 10 years in oak, it offers a richer, more intense and smoother flavour profile. Moreover, it is sourced entirely from a single estate in the Grande Champagne region, ensuring consistency and quality that is unmatched by generic XO cognac blends from larger producers.

The Benefits of Knowing the Age of Your Cognac

By choosing a cognac from Hermitage Cognac, you gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of what is in your glass. The age statement on our bottles is not just a number; it is a guarantee of the time, care, and expertise that have gone into producing each cognac. This transparency allows you to appreciate the true character of a well aged spirit, unblended and free from additives that mask the natural flavour.

Owning a bottle of Hermitage Cognac is more than just a purchase; it’s an investment in quality and tradition. Each sip offers a journey through decades of careful cellar ageing, reflecting the unique terroir of Grande Champagne. Whether enjoyed personally, given as a gift, or kept as an investment,  a bottle of Hermitage Cognac is a testament to the highest standards of cognac production and an indulgence in the very best that this golden nectar has to offer.

National Cognac Day Sunday 4th June 2023

Posted in Brandy Education, Learning about Brandy, News and tagged , , ,

National Cognac DayWe love to celebrate National Cognac Day!  This year it’s on Sunday 4th June so if you have a bottle you keep for special occasions or fancy trying something new for the first time, this is time to do it!

Cognac, which originates from a town of the same name in France, is a type of brandy, the generic name for spirits that have been made from fruit.  It begins life as a white wine, that has been produced in one of six designated growing regions, and is then distilled in an alembic still and aged in oak casks for years.

Cognac’s production is a science and indeed an art.  If the drink is new to you, here are some handy links to find out more about it:

The other very important factor you need to know is that most cognacs are blended.  This is essential to produce large quantities of a product, that always tastes the same.

But, here at Hermitage we do it differently.  Our cognacs are not blended, they come from Single Estates and each one has unique and identifiable flavours.  So, if you really want to try something new, Hermitage is the place to go.  Each bottle will tell you how many years the cognac has been in the barrel and if it’s a vintage, the year the grapes were harvested.  Enjoy!!

The Montanaro Range On Our Shelves

Posted in Learning about Brandy, News and tagged , , , , ,

MontanaroMontanaro is one of the oldest distilleries in Langa established by Master of the Still, Francesco Trussoni in 1885.  He established the first single vineyard Grappa using Nebbiolo grapes for Barolo.  In 1922 Mario Montanaro, together with his wife Angela Trussoni and son Giuseppi, refined the product using the first alembic steam stills.  At the end of 2000 Giuseppe, aged almost eighty and without direct heirs, decided to sell Montanaro Distillery to a group of “Albese “ businessmen. Today Monatanaro, known worldwide as an excellent artisanal and prestigious distillery, does not only produce grappa but vermouth, aperitivo and bitters too.  Take a look at these wonderful products we are now stocking and if you fancy trying something new, visit the home page to see this month’s offers:

Barolo Cannubi: Soft and velvety grappa aged for 4 -5 years

Barolo Chinata: Delicious aromatised wine

Bitter:  Makes the perfect Negroni with vermouth and gin.

 

 

Five of the Most Popular Types of Apple Brandy

Posted / in How to make Calvados, Learning about Brandy, News and tagged , , , , ,

apple brandyWhether you call it applejack, calvados or bätzi, apple brandy is a spirit made from fermented and distilled apples.  There are clear, unaged versions and golden-coloured ones that have spent years in oak barrels.  These are five of the most popular:

Applejack

Historically, applejack was made with North American cider apples and produced using a method called “jacking” or freeze distillation. These days, however, it is typically distilled in column or pot stills and aged in barrels or bottled as a young, clear spirit.  Applejack and apple brandy are by definition the same, but there are minor differences between the apples used, terroir and the ageing process.

Bätzi

A clear brandy made from dried apples which comes from Switzerland’s Obwalden region.  The process of ageing can vary but the duration is usually six months or more.  Bätzi is closely related to another type of Swiss apple brandy, Träsch, but the latter is made with fresh, not dried apples.

Calvados

Calvados is an apple brandy which must be made with apples from Normandy, France as stated in its Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) status.  The apples are fermented into cider, distilled into eau-de-vie, and then aged for at least two years in oak barrels.  Whilst a small number of pears are permissible, the majority of the mix has to come from the region’s very many apple varieties.

Eau-de-Vie de Pomme

Crisp and water-clear, eau-de-vie is a broad category of brandy that can be made from pretty much any fruit. It’s produced in much of Europe as well as the U.S.  When made from apples, the spirit is called eau-de-vie de pomme.  The apples are fermented into cider before being distilled, often (but not always) in a copper pot still.  Eau-de-vie is generally unaged.

Obstler

Hailing from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, this is a clear, unaged spirit. As with calvados, it is not always exclusively made from apples; Obstler can contain a variety and larger quantities of other fruits in its mix.  Apple and pear obstler is common, but there are also varieties made with apples and plums, apricots and cherries.

National Calvados Week and Liqueur Day

Posted / in Cocktails, Learning about Brandy, News and tagged , , , , ,

calvados weekCalvados is a brandy made from apples and produced exclusively in Normandy.  Its history dates back to 1553, when the drink was known as cidre eau-de-vie.  The name calvados was introduced in the late 1700s, when France was divided into departments, and it is now known as one of the Three Noble French Eaux de Vie (cognac and armagnac being the other two).  National Calvados Week is now in its tenth year and will run, alongside the annual apple harvest, from 10 – 16 October in bars and retailers throughout the UK.  World Calvados Day will follow on shortly afterwards, on the 20th October, which falls on the eve of National Apple Day.  If calvados is new to you, now is the time to try it.  We have recently taken on a new supplier, Toutain, whose calvados are some of the finest we have ever tasted.  Rich in fruity, appley flavours they evoke perfect seasonal aromas of autumn in the North of France.

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Also on the 16th of October we will be celebrating National Liqueur Day.  A liqueur is a distilled spirit-based drink that is further blended with natural sweet flavours (such as sugar or corn syrup along with fruits, nuts, creams, plats, purees, spices, etc).   Although the base spirit will have been aged, the liqueur is not; it just undergoes a brief resting stage for the flavours to blend.  Liqueurs generally have an abv of 15 – 30% and are great for cocktails.  You can also have them straight, mixed with other drinks or desserts, or simply poured over ice.  Check out our range, including Nusbaumer, here.

 

 

Different Types of Brandy

Posted / in Brandy Education, Learning about Brandy, News and tagged , , , , ,

Here at Brandyclassics and Bunch & Bushel we sell three main types of French brandy: cognac, armagnac and calvados.

Brandy is the generic name for spirits that have been made from fruit and produced all over the world.  But some brandies have very specific guidelines concerning their production.  So what is the difference between our products?  This can be summarised as follows:

brandyCOGNAC

  • Made from specific grape varieties
  • Produced in the Cognac region of France only
  • The eau de vie must be distilled twice
  • Distilled in copper pot Charentais stills.

ARMAGNAC

  • Made from specific grape varieties
  • Produced in the Armagnac region of France only
  • The eau de vie is distilled just once
  • Produced on a continuous Alembic still

CALVADOS

  • Made from apples
  • Produced in the Calvados region in Normandy
  • Top cru calvados must use the double distillation method on a pot still to be labelled Pays d’Auge
  • Column still distillation is mandatory to produce Calvados Domfrontais

Read more about the production of these wonderful French brandies on our Brandy Education page.  Another useful article outlining the differences between 12 types of brandy can be found here.

 

Armagnac Crus

Posted / in Brandy Education, Learning about Brandy, News, The History of Armagnac and tagged , , , ,

armagnac crusArmagnac is produced in the south west of France in the departments of Gers and Landes in the region known as Gascony. The region has very little industry and the landscape is relatively flat, very green and the people are friendly, living an altogether quieter life than those in Cognac to the north. Indeed, most of the land is given over to agriculture and perhaps well described by Nick Faith, the famous writer on French Brandies, as the land of Fois Gras.  An ideal base for armagnac crus.

The climate is perhaps a little warmer than in Cognac but still enjoys the temperate conditions so necessary for growing grapes. These are made into wine and then distilled into the oldest spirit in the world, armagnac. It was perhaps made famous by the French musketeer d’Artagnan and immortalised by Alexandre Dunas.

There are three armagnac crus, the smallest is Bas Armagnac. However, whilst it is the smallest in land mass, it is the largest armagnac production region making around 57% of all the armagnac produced. The department is in the north west of the region, closest to the Atlantic where, millions of years ago, the sea washed in sandy and silty soil which now produces some of the finest armagnacs. These fine spirits are fruity, light and delicate and regarded as the best armagnacs in the region. The main town in the Bas department is Eauze, a small market town where the BNIA can be found.

To the East of Bas is the second cru of armagnac known as Ténarèze. The department is slightly bigger than Bas and in the centre lies the town of Condom with its beautiful buildings and Armagnac museum. The cru comprises about 40% of all the armagnac vineyards and the armagnacs produced here tend to develop much slower than those in Bas. The clay and limestone soil produces rich and fruity spirits which are often used whilst relatively young to make generic blends.

The largest cru is Haut Armagnac. It surrounds Ténarèze on three sides, north, east and south and the main town is Auch which is in the centre of the region. The cru is often referred to as white armagnac as the soil contains an abundance of limestone. The viticulture was developed here in the 19th century to meet the high market demand but has since dwindled away to only a few producers who make largely uninteresting armagnacs.

Whilst armagnac is not so well known as its big brother cognac, it is a beautiful spirit.  It has many rich and fruity flavours, the most common being prune, which can often be identified in the Delord range.  They are one of the older producers in the region situated in the top cru, Bas Armagnac.

Storage Temperature for Cognac

Posted / in Brandy Education, Learning about Brandy, News and tagged , , ,

storage temperature‘What is the safe storage temperature for cognac?’ is a question that comes up at regular intervals.  It is worth noting that once cognac has been bottled, its maximum storage temperature becomes more critical.  Usually, a suitable space is left between the cognac and the cork for expansion but every now and again we hear of shipments in very hot countries where the excessive heat has forced the corks out of the bottles.  This is a rarity these days as modern corks are stronger and better than those made perhaps 25 years ago.  Bottle sealing, especially for rare vintage cognacs, can also be enhanced with wax seals over the cork.

However, cognac temperatures, especially during the production and ageing periods can play an important role in the quality of what we drink years later. The distillation range of cognac is between 67 – 72.4 % abv yet most of that which is available in the shops is sold at 40% abv.  The natural average drop in strength varies from 0.1% to 2% per year but it would be wrong to believe the average is between the two figures.  The actual average is around 0.5% unless demineralised water has been added to the cognac during its storage life.  Many of the commercial cognacs are stored for some of their short life in large wooden tanks with little more than a wood lid over them for protection. Here, the temperature, humidity or air dryness can have a considerable effect on both the cognac quality and speed of alcohol reduction. Cognacs that are stored in this manner are usually purchased by the big houses and used in VS or VSOP blends where additives are used to control their flavour and quality.

Of course, the controls over the bulk storage of cognac are very much down to the cellar master.  Those cognacs which are destined for higher places will be stored in barrels and hidden away throughout their life in the cellars. The cognac which we store in our sideboard should ideally be kept at a temperature not greater than 25 degrees Celsius and above freezing.  Providing the bottle remains sealed, the cognac will stay in perfect condition for decades. But, I hear you ask, what is the point of keeping a bottle without drinking it? Good point, but remember the more you drink from the bottle, the more air there will be in it and the more the alcohol will escape.  Eventually the cognac becomes undrinkable. Don’t panic though, a 3/4 full bottle with the cork replaced after opening, may last in excess of 10 years.  Even one only 1/4 full will still be drinkable a couple of years from now and who is going to leave a part full bottle of good cognac that long?

XO Brandy – What Does It Mean?

Posted in Brandy Education, Learning about Brandy, News and tagged , , , ,

XO BrandyXO brandy, XO cognac. XO armagnac. Why is the term XO used so often when few of us actually know what it means? Originally, XO stood for Extra Old. In terms of age, up until 2018, an XO cognac had to be at least 6 years old but this was also the required minimum age of Napoleon Cognac. So, after decades of promising change, the controlling body of cognac, the BNIC, agreed to make the minimum barrel age of an XO cognac 10 years old. This is important because cognacs do not mature once they have been taken from their oak casks and placed in glass. Armagnac also stepped into line and now age their XO brandies for a minimum of ten years.

The problem with all this is that brandies, particularly cognacs, need to be in a barrel for much longer than ten years to reach optimum maturity, so an XO brandy is actually not very old. It should be noted that some of the smaller brandy houses keep their XO cognacs in the barrel for longer than the required minimum age in order to produce a more mellow, flavoursome product. More recently it has been recognised that a 10 year old cognac is not particularly old so another generic age statement has been introduced, it is called XXO. The minimum age for an XXO cognac (Extra Extra Old) is 14 years in an oak cask. Even this is not long enough for cognacs from the premier cru, Grande Champagne. They are the slowest of all brandies to mature and may take up to twice as long as cognacs from other crus, requiring 50 years or even more.

The term XO is widely misunderstood and even at ten years old some brandies are only just drinkable. At Hermitage Cognacs, we do not sell generic XO brandies. We prefer to offer an age statement on each one to help customers understand how long their brandy has matured in the cask.

The Importance of Barrel Age on a Cognac Label

Posted in Brandy Education, Learning about Brandy, News and tagged , , , , ,

Barrel AgeThe growth in generic cognac sales over the last quarter of a century has distracted from the single most important criteria in determining the quality of a cognac. The age, or to be precise, the barrel age of a cognac is the most important element of cognac quality, yet we so often fail to ask the age question. Currently there simply is not enough information on the bottle to make it interesting. Compare that to a single malt whisky where the label tells us its barrel age, who made it and even what barrel it was stored in. It is little wonder that single malts outsell cognacs by a factor of 10 : 1.

Sure, there are other factors that affect cognac quality, the cru, shape and size of the still, the cut, variations in the actual distillation, the size and age of the barrels, the storage conditions . . . . . . the list goes on but the longer the cognac is allowed to sleep in the barrel, the better it is. The provenance is the one piece of information that tells us more about its quality than all the other cognac features put together.

Of course, where the cognac was made and who made it is important. However, even cognac that has been made in the top cru by a family producer, will lose its identity once it has been sold to one of the big houses as they have to blend hundreds of different cognacs together to meet their customer demands. Fortunately, there are still family firms who sell their cognacs independently. These single estate producers are much more likely to provide cognacs that have aged for more than the minimum number of years and to have kept their best and oldest in the family cellars.

Modern wine and spirit retailers have little knowledge of cognac. It is not their fault. They simply have not been told and there is no information on the bottle to encourage questions. Many retailers consider themselves as mainly wine retailers, yet if they were to learn about cognac and actively sell it, it would provide them with a much more interesting sale (there are so many different processes it goes through over a much longer ageing process than any other alcoholic beverage). Values and margins are higher, and the story is more involved and interesting than wine. After all, cognac starts as a wine.

So, you may say “Where do we go from here?” Supermarket shelves are stocked with generic blends which do not sell and if you ask for a brandy in a hotel or bar you are offered a VS, VSOP or XO. Growers and producers must make their cognacs and labels more interesting by keeping some of their cognacs back from the big houses to sell independently with age statements.

But perhaps the best idea is to draw up a long term plan and ask where producers want to be in the future; struggling to get a decent price from the big houses or offering what their forefathers would have liked, unique cognacs that have been properly aged and recognised for the unique flavours and styles that they have spent generations in perfecting. Not only will they get recognition for their cognacs, but they will get much more money for them as well. Cognacs are complex and have interesting flavours that have developed in their barrels over decades. This is why cognac is the King of all Spirits.