From XO and Grande Champagne to Lot 75, vintage Cognacs and brut de fût: how much can we really learn from a bottle?
Independent (and sometimes official) Scotch whisky labels can be remarkably informative. Distillation dates, cask numbers, wood types, outturns, bottling strengths… sometimes there is so much information that you almost need a magnifying glass.
Cognac labels can be a rather different experience.
One bottle proudly announces that it is an XO. Another says Hors d’Âge. A third gives us a precise vintage, while another simply says Lot 75. Some mention Grande Champagne, others Fine Champagne. One is bottled at 40%, another at 54%, and both may contain eaux-de-vie that have spent decades in oak.
And somehow we’re supposed to compare them.
The problem isn’t that Cognac labels tell us nothing. They can tell us quite a lot. It’s that what they guarantee, what they suggest and what we assume they mean are three different things.
So let’s decode them.
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