Rémy Martin XO Cognac

Rating: 16/23 The nose is spicy with a little bit of some light fruit - perhaps raisin with a dash of some cherry. I smell a little wood and some rancio. The palate is spicy with a lightly flavored oily background. For the spices, I get cinnamon, clove, and possibly ginger. There is a fair bit of floral vanilla and I also get some fruits that tend toward raisin with a dash of cherry and citrus. There's a long mellow woodiness that approaches a tea bag flavor, but skirts it. The flavor isn't as full as I'd expected, nor is it as deeply complex. I do get a bit of some kind of generic rancio in here. It's tasty and well-executed for sure, but it doesn't reach the level of richness or complexity that I expect of an XO, certainly one from a premium brand. It sort of reminds me of how it disappoints me that Jim Beam is always a bit lighter than other bourbons. This does have a nice mellow smoothness to it, though there is a kick from the spice. Overall, I think that this is at least a 15, but it's hard for me to justify giving it above a 17. I can actually imagine going down to a 14 some of the time. I'm contemplating between a 15 and a 16, but I think I need to land on 16.

Side by side with the VSOP really helps me appreciate this so much more. It takes every note of the brandy up to the next level compared with the VSOP. That being said it isn’t worth it for 5x the price of VSOP, but I’m glad I tried it

Great Cognac but very expensive

To say I bought two of the 50ml samples instead of a 750ml bottle from the other big cognac players - because they were affordable and were there, is redundant. I've consumed bottles of the VSOP releases from both Hennessy and Martell. But it's the Courvoisier that had them beat. The Courvoisier XO, however, has been wantonly expropriated by rap culture, due in no small part to Busta Rhymes 2001 hit, "Pass the Courvoisier". (Featuring P.Diddy, no less. Allow me the liberty to describe the track's lyricism as NSFW..... but, if it betters Courvoisier's bottom line, then, who am I to judge.) With this notion in my head ("What will my partner think?"), I decided to go with the Rémy Martin miniatures, instead. Fittingly enough, this was the one major cognac brand I'd never had. The nose is figs and raisins, with a vein of orange candy and red licorice. The nose becomes a tad drier with each sip, but the raisin notes linger while eclipsing into purple grape aromas. Sweet orange peel and red grapes on palate, before baking spices and leather take over. Following sips reveal light honey notes, which I found quite good. The finish is quite dry, more so than the Camus XO Elegance. But it leaves my mouth with a slight leathery feeling that I find pleasing - even as orange spice notes pop here and there. Is that a sign this holds a high ratio of decades old cognac? I don't doubt it. This is a very well designed cognac XO - especially the finish - but at a 45% price point over the Camus, I'm not convinced the premium is worth it. For the same price, I could pick up an exquisitely-aged scotch like a Glendronach 18 or Glenfarclas 25. And that's where I begin to question the overall VFM for this spirit, which is, afterall milder and less complex. (Disclaimer: this is only one of the five cognac releases I've had, so my limited experience should be put into consideration. Perhaps the sweet crap is what I enjoy at this stage?) At this point, I am considering just parenthetically separating cognac into a past phase, and moving on to armagnac. Nevertheless, if you feel you'd still enjoy the palate and wouldn't mind having a cool bottle (it resembles a ribboned Livesavers candy - said to reflect a waterdrop - and features a friggin' centaur on the label) - well, you could do much worse.