Every year we fit in one non-whisky event, to continue to broaden our horizons a bit! One of our members happens to be a Cognac/Armagnac aficionado and asked if he could help lead an event focusing on this spirit, which we were happy to do!

Alec led the tasting over zoom and it was incredibly informative. We learned about how brandies are made, what makes Cognac/Armagnac unique and generally considered the best brandies in the world, the distillation process, aging process and categories and more. Here’s what we tasted:

Du Peyrat XO Cognac – 12 years old aged in new oak, double distilled, all organic

Chateau Montifaud XO Cognac – 30-35yrs old (vs minimum of 10 for XO and typical max of ~25 from most producers).

Third was Vallien Tercinier Lot 96 Cognac – 1996 vintage, bottled at cask strength of 48.7% after 25yrs!

Next we had the two Armagnacs, starting with Darroze 1991, which is a family grown and aged Armagnac, and aged in new oak for a few years, then in old casks to soften the tannins. This is a blend of Armagnacs, with 1991 being the youngest vintage in the bottle (30+yrs old), bottled at 49%.

Finally we ended with an SMWS Armagnac A5.3 from Chateau de Laubade. Cask strength at 65% from 1997, “FULLY-LOADED SWEET TROLLY” lived up to its name and blew us away! This one helped me appreciate this spirit!

A fantastic introduction to this family of spirits, with some mind boggling age statements that in a scotch line-up would cost probably 10x as much! worth checking these out – great selection in Alberta!