Cognac Dudognon Vieille Réserve

From a 5cl sampler. Nice step up from the Reserve, quite a bit more robust. Semisweet and silky with orchard fruit, honey, vanilla, lemon peel, minerals, and barrel spice.

Rating: 16/23 I'm not super impressed by Dudognon Reserve (10 year), but it has solid fundamentals: the problem is just that it tastes kind of young. This bumps the age up to 20 years, so hopefully that really improves things. N: Mmm! This smells very nice! There's lots of interesting wood notes. It has those classed French oak tannins and that bitterness that approaches polish. Juicy pears and apples come out of the wood, almost as if they were growing on trees. There might be a touch of glacé apricots in here as well. There's a nice amount of depth and terrific balance here, though the overall complexity is a bit limited. Perhaps some vanilla as well. There's also a dry woody spicy layer with ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. P: This has a nice fullness for the proof, with some definite maturity from the wood coming through and bringing with it waves of spices (ginger, clove, cinnamon) and tannins. Pears, glacé apricots, and some apples peak out, with a vanilla bean thrown in. The wood and spices are the bigger part here though, with the fruits functioning more as accents. I like this palate a lot, but a little more fruit would be nice. F: The vanilla really stands out here, along with tannic, slightly polished wood. There's still some nice depth and spices to the wood though. The fruits come out on occasion, but they are reduced. The wood doesn't become over-oaky, but it's very dry. - Conclusion - This is a very nice, mature dram. I wish it portrayed more fruity decadence, but it has some really nice depth to it. Dudognon Reserve (10/23) has the beginnings of the woodiness that so characterizes this, but it is comparatively thin with obvious alcohol. This really fills the profile out, adding more depth and cleaning that up. Torres 15 (14/23) is more floral, sugary, and youthful than this is. I like that it's a bit sweeter, but its lack of nuance makes it clearly inferior to this. On to Remy 1738 (16/23). It's hard to beat Remy 1738 with its great balance of fruits, spices, and wood. This clearly tastes more mature, but it's less sweet, fruity, and fun. The two are clearly in the same ballpark, though there's an elegance to this that I don't get from the Remy, so I'm leaning toward this. A De Fussigny XO (18/23) beats this without question. There's just so much more going on in it. It's on the light side, but it combines all sorts of fruit flavors with some elegant wood accents. This does taste more mature, but that isn't everything. I think that this is closer to the Remy than it is to the A De Fussigny, so I'm giving this a 16, just like the Remy.

Pours a nice copper color. Stone fruit aromas with some floral influence on the nose. Taste is similar. Medium mouthfeel and medium finish. This is the best cognac I have had. Great flavor, very smooth and zero alcohol taste or burn. The fruit aftertaste lingers just long enough after each sip. Well worth the few extra dollars.

Once this Cognac gets the chance to breathe a little it really comes alive. Fruit on the nose and palate. It’s really lush and balanced. Can’t wait to see how it develops further.

Lemon