Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Cognac vs. Whiskey

While Brandy (the most famous being Cognac) is made from grapes,Whiskey is made from grains. Both are fermented, and convert sugar to ethanol.
 One thing that whisky and cognac have in common is that they are aged in barrels: As they age, they get more and more smooth. The spirits pick up quite a lot from the wooden barrels: Color and some flavors of course. And Whiskey and Cognac share the method of distillation in pot stills.
 Cognac must age at least 2 1/2 years. Most of the brandies are below six years, but can also be a hundred years old.
 Cognac and brandy uses age terms such as VOP, VS, VSOP or XO. To designate age.  In a modern world a simple cheat sheet for how to consume Cognac may look like this:VS = blending (mixed drinks) VSOP = blending or sipping XO = sipping, you would never mix. Big spendor factor.
If the aging  of whiskey reaches two years or beyond, the whiskey is then additionally designated as "straight" e.g., "straight rye whiskey". A whiskey that fulfills all these above requirements except that it is derived from less than 51% of any one specific type of grain can be called simply a "straight whiskey" without naming a grain.
Terms you may see alone or together on a Cognac bottle.

  • C: Cognac




  • V: Very




  • O: Old




  • S: Superior




  • E: Especial




  • F: Fine




  • P: Pale




  • X: Extra



  • The United States is the single biggest market for Cognac in the world, especially since the hip-hop industry embraced Cognac as its drink of choice.
    Winston Churchill. Kim Jong-Il. Jay-Z. Segolene Royal....... What’s probably the one thing they have in common? Cognac.
    U.S. imports more than 50 millions bottles of cognac each year.
    Between 60-85% of the Cognac sales are to African Amercians. The rest usually gets sold to creepy old white guys. Side note - (my middle child happens to be named Rémy.-named after a famous Cognac or if you like a well known grape growing region.)

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