Origin & Craft
Where it starts
Two years minimum in French oak, from the same reserve and the same cellars as the VSOP. Younger, so the fruit is still out in front. This is the cognac the house makes for a glass with ice in it.
The house
What is in the bottle
The Friday that starts early. Pear and peach on the nose, a lift of vanilla, light oak behind it, and a finish that does not ask for your attention. Eighty eight points. Distilled and aged at Vinet-Puranik in the Charente, by the same cellar master who decides when the VSOP is ready.
Charente, France
The bright end of Cognac
The same chalk, the same appellation, caught at a younger moment.
Harvest
Sharp fruit, kept forward
A high-acid grape pressed and fermented without additions. In a younger cognac that fruit is still clearly audible.
The alembic
Twice through copper
Two passes through a copper pot still, and only the heart of the second one kept. The same still, and the same decision, as the V.S.O.P.
Two years in oak
Enough wood, not too much
Aged the minimum the appellation allows. Long enough for the oak to round the edges, short enough that it never takes over.
Bottling
Reduced, rested, filled
Brought down to strength slowly, rested until the reduction settles, then bottled. No colouring, no sweetening.
Boxed
Six to a case, and out
Sealed, labelled and stacked six to a case, on the same line as everything else the house makes.
Tasting profile
Pear, peach, vanilla lift
Fresh orchard fruit with a soft vanilla lift and light oak. Approachable neat, and the better choice in a cocktail.
The moment it belongs to
When to open it
Puranique Cognac VS belongs to the first drink of the evening. The one poured while somebody is still cooking and the table has not been laid.
Serving
Neat, over ice, or in a Sidecar
Neat if you want the fruit, over ice if the afternoon is warm, in a Sidecar if there are people to feed. It holds up in all three, which an older cognac does not.
Temperature
Room temperature, or colder
Eighteen to twenty degrees neat. Over ice it keeps its fruit better than an older cognac would, which is the whole point of a VS.
In a cocktail
In a cocktail
Built for it. A Sidecar, a French 75 with cognac where the gin would go, a highball with soda and a wide strip of lemon.
