I drink this often. Much better than the sticker would have you guess.

Drink good cognac. Hennessey VS is not good cognac, it's cheap young cognac with caramel color and sugar and so forth. Uncool. The best mass-market VS are Martel and Camus, which are good for what they are - I'm fond of long nighttime walks with a flask of cheap cognac - but you've got to step your game up.Mass-market VSOPs are acceptable drinks, but overpriced for what they are. You can get much better brandy for the same cash.Pierre Ferrand Ambre is readily available and good for a young (10 years) cognac. That's like $40 a bottle, you always see it in drinks at the fancy cocktail joints. They also just released an old-school bottling, I forget what it's called, specifically designed for the pre-prohibition cocktails.Frapin XO is pretty fucking delicious, and nicely priced for a really good XO.I drink more armagnac than cognac, because armagnac is less expensive to begin with and young armagnacs are more like to be a) unadulterated and b) interesting. You can get a nice goddamn bottle of armagnac for $60, like the 15 year old Tariquet cask-strength. That'll knock your socks off.

Cheap cognac is basically for cooking, not drinking. In cognac shrimp, the sugar in the cheap cognac carmelizes instantly on the shrimp during the flameup. The results are good enough that I usually skip the beurre blanc-- you really don't need it.

Bubber wrote:I drink this often. Much better than the sticker would have you guess.I just learned this:Wikipedia wrote:Currently, Bache-Gabrielsen Cognac sponsors the Milwaukee Bucks NBA basketball team and a Bache themed bar at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA.

I got some Chateau de Pellehaut reserve armagnac. It's tasty. It also cost the same as a bottle of Remy VSOP but is infinitely better.

Jodi S. wrote:This is a quick n' dirty version of what he told me.Ha, thanks. Pretty much did that besides the waiting 10 minutes for my hand to warm the glass, which is necessary in my house because it's pretty much always in the low 60's or colder where I keep the booze. Will do that next time.

Been really enjoying brandy lately. Picked up some Dudognon Reserve Cognac and Chateau de Laubaude VSOP Bas Armagnac. Both are fantastic. I'm not sure I know yet how to describe them but I notice that with the Cognac has a very smooth entry and has a more pronounced length during which various flavors make themselves known, while the Armagnac is more or a burst of fruitiness up front, and mellows out as it goes on with more a more subtle presentation of spicy notes later. The Cognac made a better Phoebe Snow than the Armagnac.If these are entry level I'm looking forward to what's at the top.

Jodi S. wrote:My uncle Jack taught me how to drink Cognac correctly, when I was about 14 or so. When I asked him why I should know how to drink it correctly, he said "It'll come in useful some day."He was absolutely right.Uncle Jack rocks.Anything you can pass on w/o being in the same room as your student?

I enjoy cognac very much and have run the gamut on quality levels.I own a bottle of RM Louis XIII received as a gift in 1987 which I hoard like schmiegel.If I'm just looking for flavor bang, I likely go for the dirt cheap Salignac I use for cooking.Calvados is sublime, and I never make Crepes, French toast or similar concoctions (Clafoutis etc) without lacing the batter with it = YUM!!Bas Armagnacs are quite good and affordable; not much help with brand/bottle specifics since I usually get them when I'm out dining.I agree you pretty much get what you pay for; if it's cheap don't expect much.Doesn't mean you need to break the bank; just do a little research and buy what you can afford until you find what you like.The brother (RIP) of a family friend in France, was the green wine buyer for Remy. He always recommended their XO as a terrific value.

This is a quick n' dirty version of what he told me.