Cognac Review: Rémy Martin VSOP Revisited

Looking back, Rémy Martin VSOP was the earliest cognac I looked at as a sipping spirit. While I haven't gained a ton of experience since then, it is the kind of thing that I'd like to return to to see how my own palate has changed.

As Josh aptly put it, this is the Johnnie Walker Black Label of cognacs. While Rémy is not on the same level as Hennessy, it sits squarely among the second tier of producers along with Courvoisier and Martell. This gives it the depth of stock needed to produce something with broad appeal and consistency.

Rémy Martin VSOP

Nose: big notes of apple and pear, grapefruit, lemon, and orange, mild grape, vanilla, and oak in the background, vague floral and vegetal notes, a little caramel. After dilution it becomes a little muted and less complex, but more vanilla and grape come out, plus something soapy.

Taste: sweet caramel with some grapefruit bitterness up front, a little oak and something floral starting around the middle, then even more mixed citrus going into the finish. After dilution the grapefruit retreats, it's a little sweeter and more oak-y with some berries around the middle, but the flavors become more muddled.

Finish: grapefruit peel with a citric tang, mild oak, caramel and grape roundness, long but not particularly strong

The nose is absolutely the winner here. If you're looking for a fruit-forward cognac, Rémy Martin has you covered. The turn towards more bittersweet notes in the palate and finish gives it something of a moreish quality if you alternate between sniffing and sipping. While not overly punchy at 40%, it still manages a respectable weight throughout. Overall this is heads and tails above the VS cognacs I tried a few weeks ago and might even edge out Pierre Ferrand Ambre in my estimation. Especially if you're just getting into the category, you could do far worse than this.

With all of that said, I still feel like this is a slightly over-engineered product. While technically flaw-less, I have to wonder what it would be like if the spirit was given a little more room to shine. While I do appreciate the lack of intrusive oak in this expression, which is a pleasant change of pace in a mass-market spirit, but it's lost something of the edge that I think it could have had. The Dudognon I tried a while might be close since it also has a strong fruit and citrus profile but isn't tampered with in the way this one is.

In a Sidecar the nose is pleasantly balanced between the cognac and orange liqueur, with some floral notes and just a bit of lemon and baking spices. The sip begins with moderate sweetness, once again balanced between the cognac and the orange liqueur, rounded with some nice thickness from the lemon juice around the middle, then a sharper and more tart fade out into the finish along with some less pleasant bitterness. The finish continues, with light bitterness.

While this is pleasant enough, Rémy doesn't have quite enough heft to stand up on its own. Different proportions might do the trick, but I wanted to be more consistent about my recipe when comparing different cognacs. However, I stand by my original assessment of it that this is a fine cognac for mixing, even if it's a bit on the expensive side.

Cognac Review: Rémy Martin VSOP

While I've made brandy-based cocktails from time to time, this is the first time I've really tried to get a handle on cognac as a spirit by itself. Thankfully I was able to pick up a couple of minis of Rémy Martin VSOP from The Party Source for a reasonable price. It's been an interesting exercise trying to dissect what is for me a relatively new and different spirit.

Rémy Martin was founded in 1724 in the Fine Champagne area of the Cognac region in France. As the name implies, the eau de vie for their brandy comes entirely from either the Grande Champagne or Petit Champagne crus (in this case Champagne refers to the chalky soil, rather than the bubbly wine). As with all cognac, the grapes are primarily Ugni Blanc, with smaller amounts of Colombard and Folle Blanche. The wine is double distilled in alembic stills, then aged exclusively in Limousin oak barrels, and finally blended to form the final expressions. The 'age dating' of cognacs is a little fuzzy, but there are some definitions. VS indicates that the youngest eau de vie in the blend is two years old, VSOP indicates that the youngest eau de vie is four years old, and XO indicates that the youngest eau de vie is six years old. In the case of Rémy Martin VSOP, it is a blend of eau de vies ranging from four to fifteen years old.

Rémy Martin VSOP

Nose: brown sugar and raisins over oatmeal, fresh apple juice, slightly floral and vegetal, cinnamon/baking spices, baked apples, pie crust, vanilla ice cream. After adding a few drops of water, the sweetened oatmeal aspect dominates, accented by raspberry jam,  and orange peel.

Taste: moderate raisin and apple sweetness up front, ripe berries, creamy middle, light chili/black pepper heat, baking spices, then a bit of oak, some more fruity sweetness, and some floral notes. After dilution, the palate becomes a bit flatter, though the floral notes retain their previous strength and something almost malty emerges near the back.

Finish: bitter oak, over-ripe berries, a bit of chili pepper, floral, vanilla bean

Overall I found this to be rather pleasant drinking. If it weren't for the raisin notes riding through everything, I'd say that it's not too far away from resembling a sherried Speyside single malt, but the nature of the flavors make it distinct. The vinous notes are more ethereal than what you get with sherry casks (this actually makes me tempted to try aging something like pisco in a sherry-seasoned barrel to see how they interact) and the character of the flavors is simply different in a way that I can't put my finger on just yet.

To test how well this cognac works in cocktails, I went with a classic:

Sidecar

1.5 oz cognac
0.5 oz orange liqueur
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.25 oz simple syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice for six seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The nose is dominated by the orange liqueur, though a spicy note from the cognac peeks through as well. The initial sip has some grape-y sweetness, which is swiftly overtaken by spices and pepper from the orange liqueur and cognac, which fades out with bittersweet orange and oak.

While I can wish that this cognac had a few more percentage points of ABV, it holds its own rather well in a Sidecar. It balances rather well with the orange liqueur, supporting each other without either dominating the drink. The flavors that I found in the neat spirit are still very present, which is nice to recognize.

At least here in Oregon, Rémy Martin VSOP usually runs in the $35-40 range, which is perfectly decent, but not a spectacular deal. I will probably stick to cheaper brandies for making most of my cocktails, but this has encouraged me to poke my head deeper into the world of cognac, as I expect there will be some interesting surprises. There's been a bottle of Pierre Ferrand Reserve sitting forlornly in my liquor cabinet, waiting for my palate to sufficiently evolve, that I will have to revisit.