Robb Report: The 11 Best Cognacs to Buy Right Now

Cognac might not get as much attention as whiskey, particularly when it comes to bourbon or single malt scotch, but there’s a whole world of this French spirit to get familiar with and sample. There are a few rules to know—Cognac is a brandy made from grapes in the eponymous region or France that is aged in French oak barrels, either new or ones that have been used to age grape-based spirits. There are a few age designations to understand, from V.S. (at least two years old) to X.O. (minimum 10 years old). Cognac can be used to make a wide variety of cocktails, but is wonderful to sip on its own as well. We’ve put together a list of some of the best Cognacs in different categories to help you navigate this growing field, so happy hunting and santé.

Our Best Cognac Picks

• Best X.O. Cognac: Frapin X.O. VIP

• Best Single Cask Cognac: PM Spirits Rémi Landier XO Single Cask Collab

Best X.O.

Frapin X.O. VIP

X.O. (“extra old”) is the next level of age in Cognac, a designation that means the eau-de-vie has been matured for a minimum of 10 years. X.O. is prime sipping Cognac, and one of the best in this category comes from Cognac Frapin. This is a single estate expression made from grapes grown in the Grande Champagne cru, and the eau-de-vie is aged in the humid cellars onsite. This is a thoroughly sophisticated sipper, with notes of caramel, chocolate, and dried fruit on the palate.

Best Single Cask

PM Spirits Rémi Landier XO Single Cask Collab

PM Spirits sources a wide array of spirits from different producers in various countries in all spirits categories. This Cognac is a small release that is worth tracking down, and it’s notable for being a single cask release as opposed to a blend of barrels. The producer is Remi Landier, a small family business that has been around since the 1970s. This particular Cognac was distilled in 1997, and is a blend of eau-de-vie from Fin Bois and Petite Champagne. If you’re looking to really expand your knowledge and palate in the world of Cognac, give this bottle a try.

Barrel Hunting in Cognac: Unearthing Hidden Treasures in Dusty Old Cellars

There’s a popular vision of Cognac that’s all blinged out and dripping: crystal decanters, tasting rooms that look like jewelry stores and five-figure bottlings. This image is dominated by a handful of huge brands everyone recognizes: Hennessy, Martell, Rémy Martin and Courvoisier—the so-called Big Four, which sell nearly 90% of the Cognac consumed worldwide, according to the International Wines and Spirits Record. But there is another side of Cognac, too. One that’s based more on the gritty agricultural reality of the region.

I saw it on a cold, gray day last winter at an unassuming farm in the small village of Verrières. This was probably the last place I’d expect to find pricey Cognac, but I was on a barrel hunt with Guilhem Grosperrin, among the new wave of négociants whose limited-edition releases are quickly becoming the most coveted bottles in Cognac. We visited one of the 150 small producers in his network, where Grosperrin crawls around old cellars looking for rare brandies.

When we arrived at the farm, four barking dogs rushed out to us, followed by a ruddy-faced septuagenarian who was still dressed from his boar hunt earlier in the day. Cognac is a secretive, rivalrous place and I was introduced to the man in hunting attire as only Marcel, no last name. Marcel eyed me suspiciously, then asked, “Well, does he like to drink?” Grosperrin chuckled and told Marcel that, yes, I liked to drink very much. With the ice broken, we stepped into his dark, dusty cellar to taste from his barrels, which had been aging since as early as the 1980s. “Sorry it’s dirty in here. I haven’t distilled since 2012,” Marcel said.

The nonstop luxury messaging from the Big Four makes people forget Cognac’s origin as wine. We sipped liquid from Marcel’s barrels that had begun as grapes in the family’s 10-hectare vineyard, which he picked, pressed, fermented and distilled. It’s a similar story for the roughly 4,300 winegrowers in Cognac, most of whom grow less than 20 hectares specifically for Cognac production. During his career, Marcel sold most of his stock to one Big Four house or another. But he always saved a few special barrels for himself. “What they keep is for pleasure, or patrimony, or as souvenirs, or for reasons that are not necessarily logical,” Grosperrin told me.

By age eight, Marcel was able to light the still, which he did in the morning while his father tended to the cows. Marcel remembers a wealthy neighbor who’d been a prisoner of war in Germany during World War II. That man wrote to his family from prison: “Cut down all the trees if you have to, but don’t stop distilling. Distill, distill, distill.” After the war, this guy’s cellar was full, and he became rich. Meanwhile, Marcel’s family had to rebuild its stocks. “The value of money is just in your head,” he said. “But the value of Cognac is solid, and you don’t lose it.”

To whiskey drinkers, single-cask offerings may seem like old hat. But it’s a relatively new phenomenon in brandy. Cognac is actually following a model that’s already been successful for Armagnac. Single-barrel Armagnac from négociants like L’Encantada are catching the fancy of American whiskey connoisseurs tired of paying whiskey prices. The problem in Armagnac is that the existing stock of barrels is small and shrinking.

That offers an opportunity for Cognac, where there is seemingly endless stock. Though, as Grosperrin points out, “It’s much more complicated to buy a cask here than in Armagnac. In Cognac, the producers are richer, and they don’t need small independent bottlers. They have contracts with the big houses.”

It’s still the early stages for the single-barrel Cognac revolution, and we’re just beginning to see these bottles in the U.S. La Maison du Whiskey’s “Through the Grapevine” series was one of the first to appear. PM Spirits has done several limited-edition bottlings, and this year has released rare single-cask offerings from renowned producers Frapin and Remi Landier. Last spring, Grosperrin released bottlings in the U.S. for the first time in several years. Importer Heavenly Spirits has released two single-barrel bottlings from the famed estate Jean Fillioux. Vallein-Tercinier and Jean-Luc Pasquet have plans to bring more of their single-cask offerings into the States.

To be clear, at the moment, single-barrel Cognac is still the domain of aficionados, with prices running more than $200 per bottle. But they’re still a fraction of something like Rémy Martin Louis XIII or Hennessy Paradis Imperial (both more than $3,000). Much of the price of those blingy brand names is wrapped up in specially designed decanters. The new wave of single-barrel offerings is something rarer and scarcer. “This is for people who want the unexpected. It’s a different philosophy. It’s outside of the current market,” said Vingtier.

The Best Cognacs to Stock in Your Home Bar

Don’t have a bottle of Cognac on your bar? You should.

Cognac—which is a type of brandy (we'll get to that)—has always had an unfairly snooty image. It’s the building block for the Sidecar and the original Sazarac—real down-to-earth cocktail classics. As a result of the French embrace of Black servicemen in World War II, they drank it often. Before it was getting shouted out by everyone in rap, from Tupac to Drake, Hennessy became the first spirits company to place ads in Ebony and Jet magazines. (It was also was omnipresent at my cousins’ weddings at Chinese banquet halls, where there was a bottle of Hennessy on every table, right next to a two-liter of 7-Up for mixing.) Cognac has history, and it's not just pinched-face old white guys in smoking jackets swirling snifters, is what I'm saying. So yes, while you can easily shell out thousands of dollars for aged Cognac in Baccarat crystal, there are great bottles at every price point.

Best Bang-For-Your-Buck Cognacs

Paul Beau VSOP

None of the Cognacs in this category are what you would call cheap, but the idea here is value. “Paul Beau VSOP is an exquisite spirit that sells for around $60, but what makes it a great value is that this VSOP is really an average age of 15 years old,” says Thorn. “This could be labeled as an XO, which would typically fetch at least $100.”

Guillon-Painturaud VSOP Grande Champagne

Similarly, Guillon-Painturaud VSOP Cognac is also an average age of fifteen years old, far exceeding the VSOP designation. “Line Guillon-Painturaud produces on her family’s 18 hectare estate, and she is one of the few female master distillers in Cognac,” Thorn says. “Her Cognacs are elegant and fruit forward, and they are ridiculously good value considering the ages that are in the bottles.”

Navarre Vieille Reserve

“Navarre Cognacs are such a treat. Jacky Navarre is a fourth-generation distiller, and his production methods are slow and old-school. He hand-harvests the grapes, distills in small batches, and does not reduce with water, but instead allows reduction to take place only in barrel over time. The average age is 40 to 50 years old. Navarre Vieille Reserve is around $250 retail, and it is worth it.” —Kellie Thorn