The Society's Cognac VSOP

When I think about cognac, I often find myself lapsing into a kind of free association of images from a very particular, very male fantasy of the good life. Walnut dashboards, infinitesimally complex Swiss watches, Savile Row suits, impossibly silky ties and, on a glass table by the arm of an Eames chair at midnight, a crystal decanter and handblown tumbler of glowing amber cognac. The whiff of luxury branding that trails cognac like those perfumed strips in a glossy magazine no doubt accounts for much of its resilient global popularity: after a brief pandemic dip, sales of the French brandy amounted to €3.8bn according to the cognac producers’ association, BNIC. I do sometimes wonder, however, if all the glossy deluxe business obscures what makes the best cognacs such a pleasure: the finickity level of craft that transforms neutral white grapes into suavely charming, intensely flavoured spirts such as The Wine Society’s bottling by the small family-owned producer, Château d’Orignac.

<span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;'><font color="#000000">A bargain and a greatplace to start with cognac, this is soft and gentle with youthful, fragrantfruit and spice.</font> - </span>