Courvoisier XO Cognac and Louis Royer XO Cognac: Kasher LePesach Reviews

Courvoisier XO Cognac and Louis Royer XO Cognac: Kasher LePesach Reviews

This is not only a review of these two XO Cognacs. I also wish to answer the question that many of you ask yourselves come this time of year, which is whether it is worth spending that extra money upgrading your Pesach drinking experience from VSOP editions to XOs.

It’s been a busy month with Pesach preparations and moving offices from Yerushalayim to Modiin at the same time. I shall miss my frequent walks to Machane Yehuda but as they say, when one door opens, another (perhaps two three) door(s) open and I’m looking forward to getting to know some wine stores near my new offices.

This Pesach, we all loved and appreciated the company of the whole family getting together on First Day Yom Tov for the first time in two years (thanks to a relaxation of the Israel government COVID restrictions). On the Yom Tov lunch after the Seder, we sat around the table and enjoyed two special bottles of Cognac, both of them rated at XO grade (that is, at least 10 years old).

The first is a rare limited edition Courvoisier XO Cognac that came in a gold box (not to be confused with another Courvoisier XO that comes in a red box), purchased last year in 2020 during the beginning of the COVID epidemic. The second bottle we had on the table was a Louis Royer XO, which was the last purchase I made in HaMesameiyach store in Machane Yehuda, before the move.

I strongly suggest that, before reading this review, you just refer back to my previous article on Brandies and Cognacs where I explain exactly what Brandy is, the different levels and the difference between Brandy and Cognac.

https://rebmordechaireviews.blogspot.com/2020/03/recommended-french-cognacs-for-pesach.html

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Brandy: Integrity Bottlings – E150a, Chill Filtration and Higher ABV

Something which I didn’t touch on in my previous article however, is the fact that, unlike Scotch Single Malt Whisky, the new culture of integrity bottling and natural presentation has yet to make an impact into the world of French Brandy. I am led to believe by reading various Cognac review sites that the use of E150a Caramel colouring is wide spread within the Cognac industry. It would seem that bottlings of VS and VSOP are almost always tinted with E150a to give it that deep limousine oak hue which people associate with quality cask maturation.

Theoretically, there ought to be far less of a reason for XO cognacs to contain Caramel colourant, yet many (most?) do, in order, (as they will argue), to present a standard colour consistency from one batch to the next, so as to reassure the customer that he/she is getting a consistent quality product. Presumably, the producers do not have sufficient confidence in their customers to be able to understand that colour will change from batch to batch, due to the fact that no two oak trees are the same, despite going through the same Cask preparation process. If I wanted to be cynical, I could also write that colouring cognacs can also cover up any multitude of “sins” committed by a lack of cask management quality control. (In other words, caramel tinting can be used to hide the use of poor casks).

Likewise, I am also led to believe that all except the boutique Brandy producing wineries, will employ Chill Filtration to remove those pesky fatty acids which cause the spirit to haze over when subjected to water or cold temperatures. However, chill filtration, does not only filter fatty acids but also esters. This will result in stripping the spirit of some 20-25% of its flavour and dramatically reduces its texture and mouth feel. All this, so that you can add water or ice to your brandy without it going misty. Many Whisky distilleries have realised that this trade-off between appearance and flavour just isn’t worth it and proudly state on their label that they do not chill filter. It seems however, that the French Cognac wineries have as yet failed to realise this.

Moreover, the Cognac wineries almost uniformly bottle their brandy at the minimum legal required 40% abv, instead of 46% abv or higher (which would naturally reduce haziness). This obviously will yield the maximum quantity of legal brandy per cask and maximise profits, but in so doing, reducing the alcohol level down to 40% abv will reduce the complexity and depth of the brandy. One only has to experience the difference between a standard 40% abv Whisky and one bottled at 46% abv to know just how much more flavour and texture are being preserved in the alcohol.

Because of this, many Whisky lovers bypass Cognac and do not take the French Brandy industry seriously, preferring instead matured Rum or even Tequila, to French Brandies. (If I am not mistaken, I do not think Ralfy.com has ever reviewed a Cognac?)

Pesach Choices for Spirit Alcohol

During Pesach however, we observant Jewish consumers don’t have any other choice except Brandy, when it comes to enjoying quality spirits. The answer, at least in a few years’ time, will be to buy quality Israeli Brandy which are Non Chill-Filtered, Natural Colour and bottled at near cask strength. Many of them will even be Single Cask Brandies. However, at the moment, there are very few quality Kasher LePesach Israeli Brandies out there on the shelves and as a consequence, prices are really high. This should, as I said, Be’ezrat Hashem, change in a few years when Israeli premium Brandy becomes more widely available.

 

Courvoisier XO French Cognac (Gold Box)

Containing a marriage of casks more than 30 Years Old. NIS 1,100, £220

70cl, 40% abv

Technical Details

The “eaux-de-vie” (the fermented grape juice) used in the distillation to produce the brandy was made from Grande & Petite Champagne grapes.

Kashrus: OK-P

Pronounced “Corr-voo-Ah-zei-yei”

The Story of how this one off batch of Cognac XO ended up Kasher LePesach with an OK Hechsher

Firstly, please note that the “Kasher LePesach” Courvoisier XO you will most likely find in the shops will come in a red box, not gold like this one. The brandy contained in the red boxed bottles is “only” around 10 to 15 years old and costs 600 shekels (that’s around half the price of this gold box version). This red box version comes with a Teudas Hechsher from a local French Rabbanut (I am not familiar with this organisation and cannot tell you if they are a reliable hechsher or not as they are not members of AKO).

The Red Box

This OK Kosher version I am about to review, comes with a fascinating story.

This cognac is a one off, almost certainly never to be repeated special Kasher LePesach LeMehadrin production run of this famous brand, with supervision by the OK Kashrus Organisation printed on the gold box. However, the kashrus supervision didn’t begin with the OK but with the OU!

BDP

(OK) P

As the story goes, (as told to me by a close friend and veteran of the American Kashrus business), it seems that these casks were “found” one day in the Courvoisier warehouse in France with OU-P stickers all over them! The story goes that sometime back in the 1980s, Courvoisier asked the OU kashrus organisation to come and kosher their stills to make a special Pesach run of their cognac for a particular client. The OU came and koshered the equipment and supervised the filling of the casks. They then double sealed the bungs with their OU tape and asked the manager to call them again when they decided it was time to bottle the brandy. As I understand the story, the special kosher order fell through (for some reason), and therefore the winery never called the OU.

The casks then sat there for over 30 years until, in 2018, an Israeli importer called Ackerman, was being given a tour of the warehouse and happened to notice these casks with OU-P tape on them. He asked what the story was and whether he could purchase them. This was met by puzzled faces as they scrambled to find out what these casks were. (It still amazes me how distilleries in Scotland announce every now and again, that they just “came across” a cask which they had forgotten about. I always thought it was marketing “shpill” but apparently it does happen).

Now, it just happened that there was a group of visiting Rabbis from the OK who were in the Cognac region at that very moment. They were examining if it was possible to kosher the stills of another cognac winery. (They had actually decided that it was not possible as their koshering requirements might possibly damage the equipment and were preparing to go home).

Now, I’m being slightly creative here (call it poetic license if you wish), but perhaps the angel who had no doubt taken a more than generous share of this kosher cognac for over 30 years, finally decided that enough was enough. It was time to give them up. Courvoisier happened to find out that OK were in the area and invited them to come and examine the casks. A few phone calls from the OK to the OU (and contacting people who had in some cases retired years ago), established that yes, they had indeed supervised these casks all those decades ago and that they were genuine Kosher casks.

The importer bought the casks and then asked the OK to supervise bottling and paid them for the hechsher that appears on the box. (No one seems to know who or what happened to the original Jewish client who requested the kosher batch in the first place).

The Tasting Sessions

Now, before you all say something like “well it’s OK for some who drink NIS 1,200 a bottle cognac, let me just say that I received the bottle as “payment” for a whisky tasting evening I conducted in a wine store back in February 2020. Seeing as it was just before Pesach, I thought it would be a good idea for a review to get an extra special cognac in order to establish whether it was really worth spending all that money for an XO, or whether VSOP was good enough. This was the opportunity I was looking for. I would never pay this kind of money for a bottle of anything, unless it was for an investment (and would certainly never open it!) I chose this Courvoisier XO, marked up as NIS 600 because it was a famous brand and that it had a kosher certification I would rely on. The salesman thereupon picked up the bottle and put it aside for me.

It wasn’t until I came to get “paid” that we both noticed that in fact, there were two kinds of bottles of the same cognac. The gold one had OK-P on it (the one I had chosen), but the red box didn’t. The salesman took my bottle to the cash register in order to register the sale. When he put it through the scanner he realised that in fact the price was more than double the others. He nevertheless very graciously agreed to let me have it. (However, I wouldn’t get another one at that price. Ha Ha!)

As I said, I got this bottle just before COVID really hit. Who was to know back then that that Pesach 2020 would be like no other. We had originally invited the whole family but now my wife and I found ourselves going through the Seder (and the rest of Pesach) alone. I made up my mind then, not to open this bottle and wait until we could all, once again, Bee’zras Hashem all be together. Baruch Hashem, that time came this year. To celebrate further, this year I bought a bottle of Louis Royer XO cognac in order to have something to compare it to.

Colour and Glasses Used

We proudly opened both bottles of cognac on our [already] kasher LePesach table on the Friday night (Erev Pesach).

I don’t actually own Kasher LePesach classic Brandy Snifter glasses but use instead giant tulip wine glasses which I believe have a capacity of 500ml. I think that these glasses are actually perfect for sniffing and drinking brandy, dare I say, even better than traditional brandy glasses?

Talking of colour is a bit of a waste of time when you consider that caramel colour has almost definitely been added as a matter of course to even this 30-Year-Old.

However, for completeness sake, it looks the typical brown, dark mahogany wood “brandy” colour. In fact, the exact same colour as the Louis Royer XO as well as the Louis Royer VSOP we had as well. This seems to suggest that the Brandy industry standard of colorant has been added to all three cognacs.

Packaging

VS and VSOP cognacs come in relatively standard bottle shapes. However, according to French Brandy industry philosophy, for the XO level bottlings, you need to pull out all the stops to reflect its higher status, similar to the bottle design decisions made in the French perfume industry. Both bottles look really fancy-shmancy. Both designs convey elegance and luxury.

One of the most impressive elements of the design of both bottles, is the cork stopper. Both Cognacs come with these heavy metal stoppers with cork glued into the middle. The stoppers are so heavy you could use them as door stoppers. This is perhaps the problem with the Brandy/Cognac industry at the moment. It’s 70% image and 30% investment in actual quality of the spirit. (In my opinion).

 

Initial Smelling Notes

I cannot tell you how ecstatically happy all of us were, my whole family around the Shabbos table for the first time in almost a year. We celebrated by opening these two bottles and comparing them side by side.

First we started with the Courvoisier. Straight away we all agreed that this was something really special. Aroma notes flying around the table were:

Glazed Oranges with juicy raisins.

Brown Sugared Toffee eaten from a leather bowl.

Hints of Cigar Tobacco. Fresh Perfumed Garden.

We also felt that the cognac was conveying a slight reluctance or shyness. A few drops of water followed by a few seconds of swirling the liquid around in the glass, was needed to open it up. After only a few minutes, the cognac exploded with distinct flavours, like trying to smell flowers in a garden and realising that you still had your mask on. Then taking it off and being overwhelmed by all the wonderful smells!

Orange blossom, Strawberries and Fig Marmalade.

Yellow Apples and Caramelized Honey

Rich aromas of mixed Citrus Flavours

Pineapple chunks marinated in chardonnay and natural juice.

Roasted Walnuts and Hazelnuts. Glazed Walnuts.

Vanilla Pods.

Cinnamon and Five Spices in the background.

Mouth Feel and Taste

Assuming that all cognacs are chill-filtered, the Courvoisier has a big bold full natural farm honey texture mouth feel which coats the entire mouth. There is nothing youthful and frisky about this cognac at all. It reminded me of those YouTube video reviews of the latest Rolls Royce or Bentley with luxury and sophistication dripping from every lever, button and dial. Everything happens at a majestic pace. If you don’t take your time with this and let the cognac determine the tempo of sniffing and tasting, then you are simply missing the point. Nocking this cognac down in a few gulps would be like sitting in your Rolls Royce and accepting a challenge at a junction to drag race a VW Polo that pulls up beside you, whilst stopped at a red light along a main road.  Moronic!

Like a Rolls Royce or Bentley, you experience big bold aromas of mature polished wood.

This is a full-bodied rich, complex and beautifully balanced brandy. There is loads of depth and the type of spirit who could sit there for an hour, discovering new flavours and aromas. It envelops you in warm honey, glazed orange, stewed apple and sultanas with creamy walnut-whip. All the time, you are never far away from those heavy but never over-dominant polished wood flavours.

Looking back on my tasting notes, you may have the impression that this is a sweet brandy. It isn’t! Moreover, I was shocked when discussing this cognac with a friend who actually received a bottle of this excellent Courvoisier from his company as a gift, when he described it as “dry”, saying that he preferred Carmel Brandy. I will not give you much of a hint as to who I am taking about, but let’s just say that he enjoys cooking and admitted to me that he actually used this cognac in the kitchen until it was finished and then kept the bottle as a decanter for his Kiddush wine.

It was a sheer delight to drink and share this with family and friends over Pesach. By far the finest Brandy I have ever tasted and I can be confident in saying that it will almost certainly remain the finest brandy I will have ever tasted. (Why would I say this? See my conclusions below).

Finish

Long! Really long! It coats the mouth and envelops the food you place in it after you have sipped this wonderful nectar. I’ll be sorry when the bottle is empty.

 

Louis Royer XO French Cognac

Containing a blend of casks from around 15 to 30 Years Old NIS 600, $160

70cl, 40% abv

Kashrus: OU-P

Packaging

Similar to our first Cognac, the Louis Royer brand follows the same convention of a standard bottle shape for their VS and VSOP editions, and a fancy-shmancy bottle and case for their XO. Beautifully presented, it really does remind me of a giant French perfume. The bottle design is simply gorgeous and oozes luxury and prestige.

If you accidently drop this solid metal stopper on your toe, you are going to see stars.

As some of you will know, I am a big fan of the Louis Royer VSOP. I also love the cute Bumble-bee brand emblem. Indeed, honey makes up a significant percentage of the flavour profile. The question is, how does this XO, costing three times as much as the VSOP, fair.

On the Nose

Without water, much lighter and thinner than expected and a little spirit-y, indicating young maturation or less active casks. This was quite a surprise.

Light sweet Vanilla and dried fruit Herbal Tea. (I don’t like Herbal tea!)

However, with a touch of water added, despite already presented at the minimum 40% abv, now at 36-38%, it is transformed. I have some experience with Single Malts opening up when water is added but this is bordering on the miraculous. Now diluted, this cognac seems to have gained some real body and complexity!

Toffee Apples, Stewed Figs, sweet sultanas and honey, a whiff of fresh Cigar Tobacco, roasted chestnuts, new Polished Pine Wood, wood Shavings and cinnamon.

Tasting

Without water added, that is, straight from the bottle, the Louis Royer XO initially tasted very thin, watery and a bit cardboard-y dry. Adding water (as mentioned above), did what one would intuitively expect to have to opposite effect. It gives it texture, fruity sweetness and opens up far more other flavours.

Brittles toffee and yellow fruits like stewed apples, sultanas, ripe tangerines and (silly as this sounds), Tirosh grape juice. There are nutty oaky notes like eating assorted nuts from a wooden boil.  Nice mild spice in the background.

Finish

Disappointing. It’s gone almost as soon as you swallow.

 

Louis Royer XO versus VSOP

Comparing the Louis Royer XO to the VSOP was a real eye opener. Admittedly, I did not have much of the VSOP left but, passing the glass round for others at the table to try, it was enough to form a conclusion. Most, (including me) much preferred the VSOP in terms of sheer flavour and enjoyment. Seriously. This isn’t just journalistic hyperbole with headlines like “Japanese/Australian/Swedish Whisky wipes out Scotch”, as one infamous journalist has stated, trying (in my opinion), to be sensationalist and pump up interest in his book.

Conclusion and final thoughts

Despite the fancy bottles dressing (or luxury tailored suit) and caramel colour “makeup”, - in my personal opinion, “the king has no clothes on”!

I mentioned earlier the beautiful bottles of these XOs, conveying elegance and luxury. However, the question is whether the contents and price tag justifies the image that French Brandy has? Moreover, how much better are XOs to their younger VSOP siblings, costing in some cases, a third of the price?

Let’s not talk about the special Courvoisier bottle as this is a one off 30-Year-Old plus bottling. The true test is the Louis Royer XO versus the Louis Royer VSOP we tasted this year, as well as the Dupuy XO versus the Dupuy VSOP (also OU-P), we tasted a few years ago. The answer is that, in my opinion, it doesn’t justify spending all this money, and I’ll go further than this. In my opinion, you’d be utterly foolish to buy an XO when there are some absolutely delicious VSOPs on the market, representing much better value for money.

I consider it completely outrageous to spend 600 Shekels on a chill filtered, caramel colour tinted brandy, reduced at bottling down to just 40% abv that does not even match up to its younger sibling.

Relatively speaking, there is a small price difference between the VS and VSOP editions. However, the VSOPs represent a huge jump up in terms of spirit maturation quality and sipping enjoyment. The same cannot be said for the XOs. 

Honestly, I felt really foolish and perhaps a bit hoodwinked and deceived by the image of chic and sophistication we see with Cognac as a product, into spending all that money when I could have bought almost three bottles of VSOP, which gives me a much more rewarding “dram experience”. I won’t ever (bli neder) be spending that kind of money again on my Pesach spirits drinking. That is, unless the French Cognac industry start to produce a product which I would consider an integrity bottling and justify their prices. Furthermore, at least for the moment I won’t be buying any of these Israeli boutique brandies until the prices come down. Next year, its bottles of VSOP for me.