Cognac (XO) Tasting (1st one, Tastings #46)

Cognac (XO) Tasting (1st one, Tastings #46)
admin1:42 amFebruary 28th, 2026
Cognac (XO) Tasting (1st one, Tastings #46)

XO Cognac Tasting (November 20th, 2025)

This was our 1st Cognac tasting, and I wanted it to be all XO’s (Extra Old).  I chose the 4 major Cognac houses, and a few not so conventional.  The bottles in question were;

TT Label Description Proof Rating Price (US$/CAD$/SAQ)
A Martell XO 80 8.1 $280/$260/$370
B Hardy XO, Rare 80 8.4 $NA/$130/$165
C Remy Martin XO 80 8.1 $215/$240/$325
D Courvoisier XO Royal 80 8.1 $290/$300/$500
E Hennessy XO 80 8.3 $180/$270/$350
F D’Usse XO 80 8.7 $150/$300/$NA
G De Luze XO 80 8.2 $225/$300/$NA
H De Luze XO, Cognac de Noel (500ml) 80 7.4 $NA/$80/$NA

This was the 1st Cognac tasting, I’ve put on for the group.  I used to collect XO Cognacs, after I stopped collecting Grand Marnier.  With Grand Marnier I ran out of products, there were about 10 at the time.  With XO Cognac, I found the flavour profile, quite narrow.  After the 8th bottle of XO Cognac, you’ve run the full breadth of flavour of Cognac, imho, and at $250/bottle, it gets expensive, if there is little to no variety of flavours.

Cognac has 5 major categories;
  • VS – Very Special, aged 2 years
  • VSOP – Very Superior Old Pale, aged 4 years
  • Napoleon – 6 yrs to 10 yrs
  • XO – Extra Old,  at least 10 yrs
  • XXO – Extra Extra Old, 14 yrs or more, relatively new category, added in 2018
Other Categories
  • Hors d’Age Cognac – 30 yr to 50 yr old
  • Reserve Cognac – 25 yr old, on avg
  • Extra Cognac – minimum of 10 yrs
To be called Cognac, it has to be from Cognac, France, use specific white grapes (mostly Ugni Blanc), be double distilled in a copper still, aged in French Oak Barrels, grown in one of the 6 approved growing regions in Cognac France.  It is a type of brandy distilled from wine.
This tasting was all XO Cognacs, including the 4 major Cognac houses of France (Martell, Courvoisier, Remy Martin and Hennessy), I also included De Luze (lesser known, but very good), D’Usse (from Jay-Z, the black bottle, with the cross of Lorraine on it, is dramatic), and Hardy.
We had a good turnout, 12 +2 voters, and 16 confirmed, 2 never made the Zoom.  Everyone gave the bottles high marks.
In terms of guessing, Ken was the winner with 3 correct!  Stephane, Patrick and Alison R got 2 correct.  Hennessy was the XO Cognac guessed correctly, the most, 4 people guessed it correctly.

The Winners!

The winner was D’Usse XO (F), with a rating of 8.7.  Followed by Hardy XO (B), with a rating of 8.4.  In 3rd was Hennessy XO, with a rating of 8.3 (E).

 

 

1st Place (8.7) $3oo

2nd Place (8.4) $130

3rd Place (8.3) $270

 

The next tasting will be High Proof Scotch, on January 22nd, 2026, it will be our 4th Scotch tasting.

The Survey Results

  A Martell B-Hardy C-Remy D-Courv R E-Hennessy F-D’Usse G-De Luze H-Xmas
Frank M 9 8 8 8 9 9 9 7
Martin D 10 8 9 10 9 10 9 7
Mike M 8 7 9 7 8 9 7 8
Patrick S 7 9 7 8 9 9 8 9
David W 7 8 7 7 8 8 8 7
Marco M 8 9 10 8 9 10 8 7
Alison R 8 7 8 9 8 9 7 7
Stephane M 8 9 10 7 6 8 7 6
Jessica C 8 10 7 8 9 9 9 10
Allison C 7 8 9 8 7 8 6 6
Ken W 9 8 7 9 8 9 10 9
Roxwel 8 8 7 7 8 7 7 6
Total 97 99 98 96 98 105 95 89
Avg 8.08 8.25 8.17 8 8.17 8.75 7.92 7.42

After the tasting(but over Zoom, with Neil)

Janea 7 8 6 9 9 8 10 5
Mary 9 10 9 9 9 8 10 9
New Total 113 117 113 114 116 121 115 103
New Avg 8.07 8.36 8.07 8.14 8.28 8.64 8.21 7.36

 

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