Brandy Friday: Famille Esteve Cognac

Back in January, the K&L Dynamic Duo of Davids, spirits buyers David Driscoll and David Othenin-Girard, traveled to France to hunt down brandies to use for exclusive K&L bottlings. They ended up with more than a dozen from the small distillers of Cognac and Armagnac. The first one I tried from this selection was the Famille Esteve Selection Coup de Coeur, a Cognac which is a vatting of vintages from 1979 and 1981. You can find a description of the Daves' visit to the basement distillery at the K&L Spirits Journal.


Famille Esteve Selection Coup de Coeur, K&L Exclusive Bottling, 40% abv ($90)

The nose has that deep, Cognac fruit with white grape juice and raisins, but also some nice wood notes. The palate is fruity but not too sweet with a lot of spice notes. It starts with sweet wine but develops with some pepper and maybe a hint of clove. The finish has light fruit on the nose and pepper on the palate.

This is a really nice Cognac with a good amount of complexity and a nice balance of sweetness and spice. At $90, this is a huge deal.