The French Spirits Forum- Cognac, Armagnac, Calvados

[compliance]

Totally agree about the Chad being closed off and spirity. I stuck it in the back of my cabinet to rest for a few weeks, but I will experiment with glassware too. Thanks for the suggestion numen. (and btw, I am glad you're here! I've stumbled upon your notes online countless times and they have helped me a lot!)

I am down to the end of my bottle of 86 Pouchegu, and I NEED more. It doesn't look like much of this estate has left France. Google really only comes up with references to the KL bottle as far as English sites go. What are the big foreign online shops that deal with Armagnac? Are there any that ship from France? I've hit the whiskey sites i know hoping they will have some, but no luck.

[bin31z]

Delord 25 is a beautiful armagnac. I loooovvvvvve the armagnac flavor profile. It is like a bourbon mixed with a cognac. Big bold caramel and wood spice over the delicate pepper and grape notes of cognac. The Delord 25 is often found at bevmo for 60 bucks on sale and has alot of oak, vanilla and caramel notes.

[garbanzobean]

The guys at my local store had me try a pour of Dartigalongue 1984 30 year armagnac. Absolutely everything I've ever wanted grape spirits to be. Tons of bright grape up front, slowly fades into beautiful oaky spices. Natural color, no sugar added, and "cask strength" at 43%. Totally erased all the bad experiences I've had with gross obviously sweetened cognac earlier in life. Liked it so much I took a bottle home with me.

[numen]

Totally agree about the Chad being closed off and spirity. I stuck it in the back of my cabinet to rest for a few weeks, but I will experiment with glassware too. Thanks for the suggestion numen. (and btw, I am glad you're here! I've stumbled upon your notes online countless times and they have helped me a lot!)

I am down to the end of my bottle of 86 Pouchegu, and I NEED more. It doesn't look like much of this estate has left France. Google really only comes up with references to the KL bottle as far as English sites go. What are the big foreign online shops that deal with Armagnac? Are there any that ship from France? I've hit the whiskey sites i know hoping they will have some, but no luck.

Thanks! It's good to be here and I'm glad that the notes were useful. I've ordered from FinestWines, and they have a good selection, even if the website isn't terribly useful, and they seem to get very recent bottles (where the juice is freshly bottled). They usually have an assortment of Francis Darroze bottled armagnacs. I've also had some good fortune with whiskysite.nl. Very good prices, not terrible shipping fees, and an interesting selection (including good prices on Boingneres, which is a top, top producer). I'm not sure what other places have or sell Pouchegu; it's one of the challenges of these estates being so small!

[BigBoldBully]

Refreshing to hear this as opposed to (over in the bourbon discussion) something closer to "Liked it so much that after I cleared the shelf and obtained access to the back room stash, I followed a truck carrying the last case known to be in the state." Seriously, though, I'd love to try something like this, but have never found even a remotely promising armagnac around here.

[garbanzobean]

Even if I love something, I don't see myself having more than a few bottles of any one thing put away. I am a compulsive sampler, so the best whiskey (or brandy too now, I guess) is the one I haven't tried yet. It's one reason I don't worry about blind tastings for the sake of "finding what I really like." I enjoy a lot of brown spirits at this point, so I stand a very good chance of at least appreciating it (turns out I don't hate cognac or rum, I hate having a bunch of sugar dumped into my brown spirits). I still do blind tastings to try to learn to identify flavor characteristics, but what is the point of finding what I like best when what I want to try is anything that sounds interesting? That would be like wanting to find which type of beer I want to drink or food I want to eat for the rest of my life. I like almost all beers and most food. Sometimes I decide I'm hungry or thirsty for a particular type of food or beer, so I go for it. Given that taste is an inherently subjective experience, I imagine the results of any blind tasting would vary wildly by day, week, month, and mood. And to the limited degree that I've tried them, they have. Spoiler alert: heavily peated whisky does not taste good when I'm in the mood for apple brandy. Oh who am I kidding, peated whisky always tastes good.

At any rate, if you're interested, I may know a place or two for you to buy interesting armagnac. I'll send you a pm in the next day or two.

Edited March 2, 2015 by garbanzobean

[sailor22]

What a great description of the compulsive tasting disorder so many of us enjoy.

Even if I love something, I don't see myself having more than a few bottles of any one thing put away. I am a compulsive sampler, so the best whiskey (or brandy too now, I guess) is the one I haven't tried yet. It's one reason I don't worry about blind tastings for the sake of "finding what I really like." I enjoy a lot of brown spirits at this point, so I stand a very good chance of at least appreciating it (turns out I don't hate cognac or rum, I hate having a bunch of sugar dumped into my brown spirits). I still do blind tastings to try to learn to identify flavor characteristics, but what is the point of finding what I like best when what I want to try is anything that sounds interesting? That would be like wanting to find which type of beer I want to drink or food I want to eat for the rest of my life. I like almost all beers and most food. Sometimes I decide I'm hungry or thirsty for a particular type of food or beer, so I go for it. Given that taste is an inherently subjective experience, I imagine the results of any blind tasting would vary wildly by day, week, month, and mood. And to the limited degree that I've tried them, they have. Spoiler alert: heavily peated whisky does not taste good when I'm in the mood for apple brandy. Oh who am I kidding, peated whisky always tastes good.

At any rate, if you're interested, I may know a place or two for you to buy interesting armagnac. I'll send you a pm in the next day or two.

[smokinjoe]

Even if I love something, I don't see myself having more than a few bottles of any one thing put away. I am a compulsive sampler, so the best whiskey (or brandy too now, I guess) is the one I haven't tried yet. It's one reason I don't worry about blind tastings for the sake of "finding what I really like." I enjoy a lot of brown spirits at this point, so I stand a very good chance of at least appreciating it (turns out I don't hate cognac or rum, I hate having a bunch of sugar dumped into my brown spirits). I still do blind tastings to try to learn to identify flavor characteristics, but what is the point of finding what I like best when what I want to try is anything that sounds interesting? That would be like wanting to find which type of beer I want to drink or food I want to eat for the rest of my life. I like almost all beers and most food. Sometimes I decide I'm hungry or thirsty for a particular type of food or beer, so I go for it. Given that taste is an inherently subjective experience, I imagine the results of any blind tasting would vary wildly by day, week, month, and mood. And to the limited degree that I've tried them, they have. Spoiler alert: heavily peated whisky does not taste good when I'm in the mood for apple brandy. Oh who am I kidding, peated whisky always tastes good.

At any rate, if you're interested, I may know a place or two for you to buy interesting armagnac. I'll send you a pm in the next day or two.

This is such a great post. Worthy of Post of the Year. Heck, post of the last couple of years. :bowdown:

You so well put into words what I many times think about our little hobby here and how I approach each whiskey. I particularly like your take on blind tastings, as I was trying to say this to some whiskey friends just this Saturday. I hate to lock myself into an opinion, and would rather float among the different iterations and experience their beauties and sometimes, warts along the way!

:toast:

[Guest]

Really getting into marc these days, really loving a bottle of 20 year old marc de bourgogne by Joesph Cartron, so damn spicy! Great after dinner drink.

[Guest]

Found this on the shelf in a store today that Ive visited a few times in the past.

"How long have you had this?"

"Oh yeh thats been out the back a while.."

Paid a very fair price, he was happy to see it go to a good home, and I plan to return to ask about what else might be back there.

Estimated to be mid 1960's, great fill level, really excited to taste this one, all the other standard releases from the big houses around this era ive tried in the past have all been impressive.

Edited March 27, 2015 by onemorepour

[garbanzobean]

Purchased a Leopold Gourmel Age du Fruit 10 carat today on the recommendation of my bottle shop. They said it was an approachable cognac that doesn't have any additives in it, if a bit overpriced. They had the 15 "carat" (apparently years) as well, but the general consensus there was that the 10 carat is better. As always, I appreciate their honesty.

[unclebunk]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]20506[/ATTACH]

Found this on the shelf in a store today that Ive visited a few times in the past.

"How long have you had this?"

"Oh yeh thats been out the back a while.."

Paid a very fair price, he was happy to see it go to a good home, and I plan to return to ask about what else might be back there.

Estimated to be mid 1960's, great fill level, really excited to taste this one, all the other standard releases from the big houses around this era ive tried in the past have all been impressive.

[garbanzobean]

Just opened up this bottle of Leopold Gourmel Age du Fruit (10 carats) Cognac. This is in the new, fancy looking bottle. Looks to have been bottled sometime in 2014. I have to say, this is really nice. Lots of interesting fruitiness playing well with oak. None of that overdone sweetness I've tasted in the past with more popular brands of cognac. I don't know if it's worth the asking price (I don't know the cognac market well enough to make an educated guess), but it is definitely piquing my interest in finding other non-tampered with Cognacs.

[garbanzobean]

Just opened up this bottle of Leopold Gourmel Age du Fruit (10 carats) Cognac. This is in the new, fancy looking bottle. Looks to have been bottled sometime in 2014. I have to say, this is really nice. Lots of interesting fruitiness playing well with oak. None of that overdone sweetness I've tasted in the past with more popular brands of cognac. I don't know if it's worth the asking price (I don't know the cognac market well enough to make an educated guess), but it is definitely piquing my interest in finding other non-tampered with Cognacs.

[portwood]

Moved to an actual brandy snifter vs glencairn. The snifter does a much better job of opening the spirit up.

Have you tried using the brandy snifter for bourbon?

Some people swear by the snifters. They say the glencairn is a compromise design - originally designed to be robust (unbreakable) for bar use. Snifters are more delicate but with the bigger bowls are better suited for sipping spirits.

[garbanzobean]

Have you tried using the brandy snifter for bourbon?

Some people swear by the snifters. They say the glencairn is a compromise design - originally designed to be robust (unbreakable) for bar use. Snifters are more delicate but with the bigger bowls are better suited for sipping spirits.

I typically try all bottles I open from glencairn, NEAT, snifter, and even tumbler(Amrut fusion was excellent out of a tumbler for some reason) if nothing else is working. Jack Rose serves all spirits out of a snifter unless you ask for a glencairn, and that is originally where I figured out that cask strength whiskies (including bourbons) work better for me out of them. Old oaky bourbons seem to work well out of snifters, too. Chainwhip also suggested it. I regret learning that at the end of my bottle of JPS21, because it really brought something new to the table.

[Dave43]

Looking to get into Armagnac, Anything decent in the $50 range? Picked up a Cles Des Ducs VSOP...Thoughts on this one?

[unclebunk]

Looking to get into Armagnac, Anything decent in the $50 range? Picked up a Cles Des Ducs VSOP...Thoughts on this one?

I've been eyeing Marie Duffau Hors d'Age and Delord XO, both of which are priced at $50. Anyone care to weigh in on which one I should get?

[garbanzobean]

K&L and Ralfy piqued my interest in Italian grappa and brandy this week. Anyone got any experience with Villa Zarri 10 or 21?

[garbanzobean]

Giving Germain Robin XO a shot.

[ChainWhip]

Giving Germain Robin XO a shot.

Verdict?

.

.

.

.

.

[Ishad]

Found a 30 year old delord, so decided to dive in. A big change coming from drinking bourbon and rye, but definitely really nice. Great finish.

[Guest]

I've been eyeing Marie Duffau Hors d'Age and Delord XO, both of which are priced at $50. Anyone care to weigh in on which one I should get?

Cant ever go wrong with Delord XO, great stuff and for me its the benchmark for judging value of more expensive pours

[unclebunk]

Cant ever go wrong with Delord XO, great stuff and for me its the benchmark for judging value of more expensive pours

Thanks for the input. My understanding is that Marie Duffau and Delord are made by the same family, so I'm wondering what makes the two different. Have you tried the Hors d'Age by chance?

[Guest]

Thanks for the input. My understanding is that Marie Duffau and Delord are made by the same family, so I'm wondering what makes the two different. Have you tried the Hors d'Age by chance?