The festive season is here and Decanter has plenty of ideas to help you choose the perfect present for spirits lovers – from gin, rum, vodka and Cognac gifts sets to cocktail books and whisky decanters.
The two brown spirits have some complicated similarities and differences. They are kinda the same, but also not? It's confusing! Let's just jump into it.
The best VSOP Cognacs: eight to try decanter.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from decanter.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Until 2018, you could label a
Cognac as XO after only six years of ageing, but now the minimum period of maturation is a decade. In reality, this made little difference to most quality-conscious distillers, because they were already ageing their eaux-de-vie for well over 10 years anyway.
Creating these XO styles is the point at which the great
Cognac terroir of Grande and Petite Champagne comes into its own. Those deep, chalky soils help to create a distillate that rewards patience and long years in oak – whether produced by one of the big, multinational-owned Cognac houses, or by a small farm operation using only the fruit of its own vineyards.