Description
…
Nose: A dramatically fruity style, showing some passing resemblance to certain apple brandy types, here mingling with a much drier smokiness. Much
greater oak structure than many standard Cognac brands (which often have none at all!). Even slightly peppery at times with the spices dovetailing
with the undulating fruit. A very different Cognac aroma… because of the fascinating polarisation of fruit and tannin plus the mysterious smoky link between.
Taste: It is the richness of the mouthfeel and texture which makes its mark first… Soft sultana-like sugars… making way for the black peppers promised on the nose and which impatiently arrive. This is a
busy mouth feel, the tannins darting and dancing around the palate, the fruit tones on the nose evident, for a while subdued after their early
announcement, light oiliness clings to the palate.
Finish: Dry with bristling tannin and peppers. The fruity sugars from earlier are now a memory and this takes a more traditional Cognac line as the
fade becomes more vanilla pronounced.
Balance: Have to say I have never quite come across a Cognac with this personality before; it is not only different, it makes a grand, sweeping
gesture at being different! It is almost three dimensional in its vitality. And the joy of those two forces of big fruit and spice leads to great
balance. Hardly a shrinking violet of a Cognac, attractive, silky, sultry and characterful
Shown below: an auction lot from Hong Kong of 1811 Vintage Cognac Sazerac de Forge “Roi de Rome” from the famous “comet year” of 1811. This set will set you back 36,000 British Pounds! Supposedly right after WWII Churchill visited a French hotel that hid their wines and spirits from the Germans behind a false wall and Winnie found a bottle of this rare brandy which he enjoyed well into the night.