A good friend came to visit last night. He loves Cognac so I had my bottle of Germain-Robin at the ready. We compared it against an Edouard III Cognac. It was far superior — so we pulled out a Macallan 17 and 25 year old Scotch as well as an Auchentoshan Three Wood — which is the only triple distilled Scotch from Scotland. Nothing compared to the Germain-Robin — it was so smooth. You get very little heat on the nose. It has amazing depth, richness, purity and a very smooth and clean finish. It is nothing short of stunning — and is probably the best spirit I have ever had in my life. Essential and strongly recommended.
Spirits and Cocktail magazine has called Germain-Robin’s Select Barrel XO the “best on the planet,” while the New York Times states that the “depth & richness are astonishing.” Robb Report Magazine’s panel of experts also selected the Germain-Robin Select XO ahead of “Richard Hennessy” cognac that retails at $1,500 a bottle.
Germain-Robin is the producer in the world to use 100 percent world-class wine grapes as the base of its distilling and 80 percent of those grapes are Pinot Noir.
Just ten barrels a year of this XO alambic brandy are released, and it is consistently reviewed as one of the finest spirits in production. Hand-distilled on an antique cognac still from twelve different premium wine-grape sources, aged for 13 years, and brought to proof with filtered rainwater.
A really amazing and stunning spirit. Strongly recommended.
How much does this cost? I am interested, but if it is too far out of my price range I have no need to hunt it down…
It retails for $120 a bottle.
This is by far the ‘best of breed’. After discovering Germain-Robin Brandy in 2003, I stopped purchasing French Cognac as this is a much better spirit overall. It is one of the best well-kept secrets in America I think.