Hennessy VS Limited Edition Bottle by JonOne

Hennessy VS Nose: purple/grape, prunes, dried red fruit, sweet Taste: sweet, wood, spice, fruit: apricot I think, maybe some grape too, vanilla, a little burn on the finish. With time you get red gummi bears on the nose as well. The finish cools down and there are some roasted nuts on the end Not bad at all for a VS.

Confession: Hennessy VS was the first spirit to draw me into the world of slowly sipping on an oversized sexy glass of liquor neat. It was my transition point, where I became pretty refined for a ghetto kid. I have come A LONG way. I still use this for cooking to make steak flambe, and find an excuse for a few sips. I’m both intrigued and appalled that the newest bottle (which contains the same liquid as standard bottles, I’m sure) features art by a Harlem-born artist. I’m pretty sure LVMH gives only one fuck about Harlem, and that’s how to extract money from it. Anyways… NOSE: Vanilla, oak, and alcohol. Young cognac suffers more from being young than young whisky, for sure. I can smell the fucking grape peels… like, I’m going to be acid, and I’m going to bite your tongue. PALATE: This has gotten less and less harsh for me over the years, as I have gotten use to cask strength whiskies. It tastes like white grape juice, with a liquorice and plastic note that I don’t appreciate. Maybe some apricots and peaches, which will come flowing forth with ease if you go full-on ghetto and smoke some obligatory ganja. It is watery and smooth. Reviews that claim the VS is harsh are from virgins to spirits. FINISH: There is a long aftertaste, some pleasant, some not so much. Liquorice, raisin, oranges, syrup, bittermelon. In the end, I do not want this to be the final thing I taste for the night. VERDICT: I pretty much departed the world of Cognac because you cannot find a good one for less than $100. The start of Hennessy’s excellence is the XO. VS holds a special place in my heart because it connects me with my humble beginnings and I still use it as my exclusive cognac for cooking, but let’s be honest, this is barely drinkable, and you do NOT want to order this as your sole desert. MARK: 63/100.