Currently reading Direct Action by John Weisman

Main character drinks Cognac. It occured to me I've never tried it before. Anyone here a Cognac conasure? What is a good brand to try? Thanks.

FYI - Book is a excellent read so far.

Anything from Ripple LTD. ought to do just fine for a Cognac conasure.

For a chance at a connisour's palate you can scope out Google and find places like:

www.tastings.com/search_spirits.lasso

www.grand-marnier.com/gmv2/us/manufacture/manu-2-bourgchar.htm

I was raised on Grand Marnier almost half a century ago.  Still buy it for my 81yr young mother.

Welcome to a new world,

Dave S

Hennessy,  Courvoisier,  Martell,  Remy Martin,  my main sellers

There are allot of Cognacs...each have a distinct taste, smell, after taste.  they are pretty much all good.  The more expensive the smoother the ride

I love Hennessy XO myself, great stuff.

I would like to try some of the "Richard Hennessy" stuff though, hard to find, however.

Martell is my favorite!!!!

Quoted: I love Hennessy XO myself, great stuff. I would like to try some of the "Richard Hennessy" stuff though, hard to find, however.

You've got great taste Devildog,  and deep pockets too

The Henn VS or VSOP is very smooth but the XO is just...exquisite

Des Ribauds "Hommage Au Temps" 50 Year Old Cognac

Please, please, PLEASE do NOT mix it with coke, like the 'hoodrats do.  

VSOP...Very Special Old Pale

Quoted: Please, please, PLEASE do NOT mix it with coke, like the 'hoodrats do.

What he said.

Also, do not call hennessy, Hen-Dog.

Louis XIIII

Isn't Kim Jong Il  a big Hennessy drinker?

Quoted: Louis XIIII

I think you mean Remy Martin Louis XIII
It's $100/oz(average, some places its' higher) and the best fucking liquid your body will ever consume, barnone.

Thanks guys

What kind of $$ should I expect to pay for this Hennessy? I'm in a small town and will most likely have to have it special ordered in. Give me rough price so I know if my guy is trying to stick it to me.

From what I've seen the best pricing, availability of different sizes, and all around awesome shopping experience is here:

http://www.missionliquors.com/bourbon/bourbonwhiskey.html

I'm not too up on Hennessey prices but they should be comparable to Remy Martin prices.
~$40-50 for VSOP  ---start here for a beginner
~$80-120 for XO    --- then move here
Don't drink anything less than VSOP either, it tastes like swill.

Quoted: I think you mean Remy Martin Louis XIII It's $100/oz(average, some places its' higher) and the best fucking liquid your body will ever consume, barnone.

Ouch!!!! Remy Martin Louis XIII Diamond  750ml  $6,900.00

I think that is some fancy diamond studded bottle, thats why it costs more.
It's regularly $1200ish a bottle.

cognac is a brandy from the cognac region of france.

as with wine, i advise against starting high on the scale.  start with a solid VS, such as hennessey or remy.  after several drinking sessions, move up to a VSOP of the same brand.  only then try the more expensive XO varieties.

remember, to fully enjoy any brandy, it is vital to drink it correctly.  true story:  one of by bar trainees saw a bottle of hennessey XO, and mentioned that he had some XO at home, but that it was nothing special.  when i asked him how he was drinking it, he replied "on the rocks, like scotch".  after i finished beating him about the head, i explained how to properly enjoy a good cognac.  (well, the very best way is over the nipple of the woman you love, but that's a story for another day)

at any rate, he said he'd go home and try it.

at about 2AM, i got a drunken voicemail from him.  amongst the slurring and jibberish, he mentioned that he'd never had better booze in his life.

he showed up an hour late the next day, and was still hung over.  but he never drank anything but cognac afterwards.

I just googled this...it's kinda like How the Irish Saved Civilization lol

"Hip-Hop Fridays: How Rap Music Saved Cognac by John Carreyrou and Christopher Lawton

Listening to a recording of Busta Rhymes's hit song "Pass the Courvoisier," Anne-Sophie Louvet cringes at the thumping rap music and says she doesn't understand the lyrics.

But what the shy French grape-grower does understand is that she owes a debt of gratitude to American hip-hop artists. Rappers' adoption of cognac, the storied French spirit, as their preferred party booze has been a godsend for Louvet and her fellow farmers.

Five years ago, the region surrounding the small town of Cognac in southwestern France was on the brink of ruin. An economic crisis had sent consumption of the brown liquor plummeting in Asia, its No. 1 market.

In 1998, furious grape growers blockaded the town for four days after cognac makers slashed grape orders.

These days, the cognac industry is thriving - thanks to America, not Asia. Exports of cognac to the United States have nearly tripled over the past 10 years, and last year Americans spent an estimated $1 billion on Napoleon's nightcap.

Behind this trend are the likes of Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, Snoop Dogg and other rappers who have embraced the pricey brandy with the 300-year history as a status symbol. That has spawned a cult cognac following among young urban black people, who mix the liquor in new cocktails with names like "Thug Passion" and "French Connection."

Long associated with gastronomes and white-shoe bankers, cognac has become ubiquitous on the black nightclub scene in New York, Atlanta and Chicago, among other places.

Eric "Kaine" Jackson, 24, half of the Atlanta hip-hop duo the Ying Yang Twins, calls cognac a mellow "man's drink" but cautions against overdoing the 80-proof liquor.

Often referred to by the hip-hop crowd as "yak," cognac figures in countless rap songs. Hennessy, the preferred brand of many rappers and the drink of choice of the Ying Yang Twins, is affectionately known in about 100 songs as "Henny," "Henn-dog," or "Henn-roc."

Cognac "is a classy, sophisticated and really smooth thing to drink," says rap star Jay-Z. His new Manhattan club, 40/40, features a "Remy room" in honor of his own favorite cognac brand, Remy Martin. He says he likes to sip Remy Martin's Louis XIII -- which comes in a gold-encrusted Baccarat crystal bottle for $5,000 -- "whenever I wanna have a really relaxing moment, usually with a cigar."

The rappers' ostentation is in stark contrast to the frugal lives of grape growers in and around Cognac, who have been tending to family-owned vineyards for generations. "It's not quite the same world," says Louvet, 44, whose great-grandfather bought the 74 acres she cultivates in 1890.

"In this region, you don't show your wealth if you have some, and you don't talk about money," she says. She is keeping an open mind, though. "We have our values here, but we tolerate the values of others. What we want is to make a living."

That hasn't been a problem recently. The United States imported 3.7 million cases of cognac last year, up from 1.3 million in 1993, accounting for 36 percent of the worldwide market. Hennessy, the biggest cognac brand in the United States, with 53 percent of the market, says young black people now account for 60 percent to 85 percent of its U.S. sales. That surge in consumption has helped the roughly 20,000 Cognac-area inhabitants whose livelihoods depend on the cognac trade.

Cognac was first produced in the 17th century, when Dutch sea merchants found they could better preserve the white wine they shipped from southern France to northern Europe by distilling it. Shipping delays eventually made them realize that the distilled wine got better as it aged in wooden barrels.

In the United States, cognac has been popular among affluent black people since the 1970s. But it didn't become big on the hip-hop scene until the late 1990s, when rappers took to mixing it with other drinks. Mixing cognac had been considered heresy by traditionalists, who savor the high-end brandy straight, in a snifter, as an after-dinner drink. Desperate for new growth, cognac makers seized on the trend, openly targeting their marketing at young black people and touting cognac in mixed drinks.

There are four main cognac companies: Hennessy, Remy Martin, Courvoisier and Martell. They buy grapes from growers but handle the aging, blending, marketing and distribution themselves. Hennessy is owned by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, Remy Martin by Remy-Cointreau SA, Courvoisier by Allied Domecq PLC and Martell by Pernod Ricard SA. The centuries-old arrangement has left growers cut off from the ultimate consumer and often oblivious to the latest market trends.

In April, Courvoisier decided to educate its grape suppliers about the U.S. market. The 900 farmers gathered for an event near Cognac were aghast when the company played a video of Busta Rhymes's ode to the brand, which includes sexually suggestive and violent scenes. "They didn't know what to make of it," says a Courvoisier spokeswoman, who adds that the projector broke down before they could see the part where a bottle of Courvoisier gets passed around.

"We weren't expecting cognac to be associated with those types of people," says Jean-Marie Macoin, a 55-year-old grower. But, he says, "we know we have to adapt to a changing world."

In Cognac, locals try to digest the culture of their new customers as best they can. "There are times when I don't ask myself too many questions," says Yann Fillioux, Hennessy's 56-year-old master blender, who has been selecting and aging cognacs for 37 years. Asked whether he listens to rap, Fillioux, who is the seventh-generation master blender in his family, deadpans: "I'm more of a classical-music kind of guy."

Hoping to bridge the cultural chasm, Hennessy plans to fly a half-dozen grape growers to New York in fall for a tour of nightspots. Louvet, who plans to make the trip, is guardedly looking forward to her visit.

"The more Americans drink cognac and prefer it to whiskey, the better it is for us," she says."


John Carreyrou can be e-mailed at [email protected] and Christopher Lawton can be e-mailed at [email protected]

dupe post...ignore.  

Quoted: cognac is a brandy from the cognac region of france. as with wine, i advise against starting high on the scale.  start with a solid VS, such as hennessey or remy.  after several drinking sessions, move up to a VSOP of the same brand.  only then try the more expensive XO varieties. remember, to fully enjoy any brandy, it is vital to drink it correctly.  true story:  one of by bar trainees saw a bottle of hennessey XO, and mentioned that he had some XO at home, but that it was nothing special.  when i asked him how he was drinking it, he replied "on the rocks, like scotch".  after i finished beating him about the head, i explained how to properly enjoy a good cognac.  (well, the very best way is over the nipple of the woman you love, but that's a story for another day) at any rate, he said he'd go home and try it. at about 2AM, i got a drunken voicemail from him.  amongst the slurring and jibberish, he mentioned that he'd never had better booze in his life. he showed up an hour late the next day, and was still hung over.  but he never drank anything but cognac afterwards.

so what' the best way...brandy snifter??

Quoted: cognac is a brandy from the cognac region of france. as with wine, i advise against starting high on the scale.  start with a solid VS, such as hennessey or remy.  after several drinking sessions, move up to a VSOP of the same brand.  only then try the more expensive XO varieties. remember, to fully enjoy any brandy, it is vital to drink it correctly.  true story:  one of by bar trainees saw a bottle of hennessey XO, and mentioned that he had some XO at home, but that it was nothing special.  when i asked him how he was drinking it, he replied "on the rocks, like scotch".  after i finished beating him about the head, i explained how to properly enjoy a good cognac.  (well, the very best way is over the nipple of the woman you love, but that's a story for another day) at any rate, he said he'd go home and try it. at about 2AM, i got a drunken voicemail from him.  amongst the slurring and jibberish, he mentioned that he'd never had better booze in his life. he showed up an hour late the next day, and was still hung over.  but he never drank anything but cognac afterwards.

Well, you going to tell us how?

Don't leave us hanging.

...

Okay, I knew I had some of this stuff around the house.  (inherited the old man's booze collection when he died...I've given away at least 5 or 6 bottles of cognac away)

Hennesey Napolean, and Courvoisier VSOP.  

Poured a small amount of the Corv into a brandy snifter, swirled it around for a while, savored the bouquet, then took a sip...NOT what I expected from the smell.  To be quite honest, I though it tasted like soapy water lol.  I gave up on the Courv. and moved on to the Hennessy.  

Smelled the same, still tasted like dishwater, but after about 5 minutes of swilling it around in the glass, the next sip tasted *marginally* better.  I bit my lip and took a bigger taste...it was actaully not bad, until I SWALLOWED it....BLECH....hideous flowery aftertaste...so now I have a flowery, dirty dishwater taste in my mouth.  

I guess it's what's called an "acquired" taste.  Roughly translated, that means "this stuff is really foul, but it's VERY expensive, so if I convice myself that I like it, I can lord it above my friends and business associates" or something like that

Anyway, I'll stick to BEER.  Gonna have one now, to get that nasty taste out of my mouth!!

sorry--my folks have been in town, which meant lots of trips to the gunstore and the army/navy store.



at any rate, here is the way to get the most possible flavor out of cognac, or any brandy:

first vital item:  cognac.

second vital item:  a brandy snifter.  the characteristics of the glass are very important.  it should be of the thinnest possible construction, and the mouth should be significantly smaller than the "bowl".  we'll get into the reasoning in a moment.

first step--fill the snifter.  the easiest way to fill a snifter with the proper amount of brandy is to lay the glass on its side.  due to the shape of the snifter, the mouth will be angled slightly up.  carefully pour the brandy into the glass until the liquid is just barely short of the lip, then stand the glass upright.  you will note that the glass is not even remotely full, but avoid the temptation to add any more.  in addition to being a faux pas among the extended-pinkie crowd, it will also prevent the full flavor of the brandy from showing.  most of the aforementioned extended pinkies will not know this tidbit, but ignorance will not prevent them from gossiping about you, the newfound cognac troglodyte.

second step--prepare the brandy.  this is a twofold process.  first, hold the glass properly.  make the vulcan "live long and prosper" sign, and slide your hand under the bowl, with the stem between your middle- and ring-finger.  curl your fingers in so that you are palming the bowl.  you are going to use your body heat to warm the brandy.  to facilitate this process, the second step is to swirl the liquid in the glass.  this will result in a thinner layer of fluid that will warm much faster.  in addition, you are aerating the brandy in much the same way that you let wine breathe before drinking.  swirling presents the maximum possible surface area to the atmosphere.

third step--drink the brandy.  this may seem self-evident, but as john cleese once said, "there's no need to go stampeeeeding toward the clitoris!"  much like sex, obtaining the maximum possible enjoyment from drinking cognac takes patience, not to mention a little finesse.  so we're not going to leap hornily for 3rd base with our voluptuous brandy snifter.  instead, we're going to start with a kiss.

when we take our first kiss of cognac, we are, eskimo-style, going to use our nose.  you may be aware of the fact that smell and taste are very closely linked, to the point of being variations of the same sense.  what you may not know is that the human sense of smell is over 10,000 times more acute than our sense of taste.  this is why we went to so much effort in choosing our glass, warming its contents, and subjecting them to the atmosphere.  what we have done by all this is to create an aromatic explosion within the snifter itself.

as you lift the glass to your lips, it will become evident that your nose is going to wind up inside the glass.  this is not a design error.  just before you sip, smell.  because of the shape of the glass, the aroma will be concentrated, and almost overpowering.  it won't smell like liquor.  it'll smell like the memory of a night long past.  the memory you bring up when you want to smile.  a gentle memory.

you know the one...

and when you sip, you're not going to swallow just yet.  this isn't nourishment, at least as far as the body is concerned.  let the cognac sit on your tongue.  let it trickle down the sides, near the back, where you don't normally get flavor sensation.  your tongue will want to curl.  let it.  there's a road about a half-inch wide that runs from the tip of your tongue to your throat.  it is down this road that most everyday flavors travel.  go off-roading.  let the cognac wash through your whole mouth, in the same way that saliva does.  after all, brandy is known as "the water of life".  let your entire mouth live.

after the foreplay of the first glass, you'll accelerate into a rhythm, as lovers do.  and as with lovers, all further advice is useless.  simply let your desire dictate your pace, and forget what you "should" do, or what others think is acceptable.  follow your heart, and your tongue.

c'est l'amour, no?

TW Samuels is by far the best Cognac made. Try it you'll love it.