brandy guide

How to taste Cognac and Brandy

While it isn’t complicated to enjoy a fine Cognac, or any other kind of brandy, a few tips can help you get the most out of this fine spirit.

While those enormous brandy balloons are fun for swirling your Cognac around in and channelling your inner Rowley Birkin QC from The Fast Show, they are not good for tasting. The problem with a large snifter glass is that it allows alcohol to evaporate so when you put your nose in all you will get are alcohol fumes rather than the deliciousness of Cognac.

Instead we recommend you use something a bit smaller. This could be a whisky tasting glass like a Glencairn, a specialist Cognac glass, or a sherry copita.

Right, sensory organs at the ready? Let’s get tasting!

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Appearance

Your Cognac's appearance can tell you a lot about how it will taste. Broadly speaking, the darker the Cognac, the older it will be and the more wood character it will have. In contrast, a pale brandy will usually be lighter and fruitier. But beware, appearances can be deceptive. Many Cognacs have boise (a kind of wood extract) and/ or caramel added caramel.

Nose

Pour about a centimetre into your tasting glass, don't give it a swirl as you would wine as this will unleash the alcohol. Take a little sniff, not a great big inhale. Think about what you are smelling. Does it smell sweet, think honey or toffee? What kind of fruity notes are you getting like peach or apple? Are the fruits fresh or dried, or both? Then there are all kinds of other flavours you might get like walnuts, chocolate, tobacco, or pastry. Richer wood and tobacco and dried fruit notes suggest age whereas very fresh fruit and lighter floral flavours are usually found in younger bottles.

If you’re not getting much, wait a bit. Many spirits take a while to come round in the glass. Though don’t leave for hours or the alcohol will start to evaporate.

Palate

Almost all Cognac is designed for drinking without dilution so it’s not common practise to dilute with water as with whisky – though you could if you wanted to.

Take a little sip just to get your mouth used to alcohol, give it a swill around and swallow. Now take a slightly larger sip, try to breathe in a little when it is in your mouth to aerate the brandy. Give it a good swill around your mouth so that it coats every part and then swallow (or you can spit if you have to operate heavy machinery).

Now think about how it tastes. Look for fruit, wood, nuts, spice and other aromatic notes just as you would when nosing. But also the feel in the mouth. Does it feel thick or thin? Can you feel any tannin like you would in a red wine? Something light and fruity is likely to be younger whereas something heavy with pronounced wood tannins will have spent longer in cask.

Finish

How long does it go on for? You don’t need to get a stopwatch out here but just think about how long the taste will linger. With really fine old Cognacs it can be as much as half an hour or even longer.

Tasting Tips

Make sure there aren’t any competing smells like pungent cooking, aftershave/ perfume, or tobacco. Save the cigars for later.

Always take notes. If you want to improve your tasting skills, the best way to do it is to take simple notes on the Cognac you are tasting and save them somewhere like the Cellartracker app. That way you will be able to refer back to them.

Taste with fellow enthusiasts, have a discussion, argument, frank exchange of views. Just don’t take it too seriously.