Taylor C.

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Bio:

French wine, and the concept of terroir, captured my interest early on. Naturally, curiosity took me to spirits, in particular Cognac. Today I'm proud to be a member of the Cognac Expert team managing B2B projects, working on Cognac Expert Originals, and writing bottle reviews for the English Blog. I love to taste anything and everything - rum/rhum, whisky(ey), Armagnac, etc. - but no other spirit grabs my attention quite like Cognac, and all of its subtleties and nuance. Santé !

Marancheville Tres Rare Lot N. 14/45 Grande Champagne

Eccezionale 91 /100

The Cognac pours a golden amber color. Considering its age, it’s quite a light and fresh color. Very promising.

To merely use the words aromas or smells would be to entirely understate the nose of this Cognac. Instead, one should talk of perfumes to describe all that the nose encounters in and around the glass. First up is a very fragrant cedarwood perfume. There are traces of vanilla competing for the nose’s attention, but they remain under the wafts of this fragrant wood note. The combination of fragrant wood with the vanilla underneath is very elegant and fine. With a little time in the glass, the fruit appears in waves: spiced orange peel, orange Jolly Rancher candy, and a fresh cut mango at perfect ripeness (maybe even one day overripe). For whatever reason, I also kept imagining a spiced orange incense. In short, the perfumes waft out of the glass. It’s all so elegant, refined, and classy. Fantastic!

A couple of things stand out right away after the first few sips. One, the refinement and elegance of the mouthfeel. The taster will know what he or she is tasting is seriously on another level. Two, the fruit is present in abundance. About the fruit: tinned mandarins, candied orange, fresh mango, dried apricot, and various artisanal pates de fruits (apricot and mango). For the maturity of this Cognac, the bags and bags of fruit are outstanding - and completely unexpected. The tannins from the wood are best described as fine tannins, as they gently grip the sides of the mouth as the Cognac is swallowed - nothing rustic, nothing edgy. The Cognac has a good presence in the mouth - it’s mouth coating - but it remains easy to access and always high in elegance. Maturity with flashes of youth let’s say. When was this put into demijohns? The trio of fragrant wood, orange-meated fruits, and soft spices is quite memorable.

The N.14/45 Cognac does not end there, though. It’s long. For minutes between sips, the tongue stays covered in the fruit flavors. Sipping too frequently would rob the taster of the opportunity to experience the lasting waves of flavors. Eaux de vie from the Grande Champagne really seem to be able to deliver fruit with maturity, all while maintaining elegance and precision. Sure, other crus deliver fruit and mature notes but not without some rustic or heavy (old wood) elements creeping in - in my experience at this moment in time.

Note: This Cognac contains a roughly equal blend of the two lots (1914 and 1945. Both were put into glass demijohn twenty years ago. So that's quite some time aging in oak.