School me on Brandy vs Cognac

[Doc4]

unless it is a Rusty Nail, I am not going to be making a cocktail with Scotch at all!

I like a rusty nail. For that, I'd go for the best blend I had, if I had one on hand, or else the most "generic" single malt if there's no blend around. Sort of the JW Red ... JW Black ... Chivas ... Glenlivet 12 sort of range.

I'd use the cheaper blends (up to and including JW Red) in a scotch-&-soda ... more of a drink I'd have at an "open bar" event and I don't like testing the quality of their house wine.

Here is one for you, if you were going to make a champagne cocktail, and you were using real champagne, which I have taken to doing, and you had a variety of cognacs available, how expensive on the cognac would you consider going, say for a drink with someone you knew would appreciate it?

So is this a cocktail with both champagne and cognac? I'm not too familiar with champagne cocktails (mostly just familiar with champagne and orange juice thing, where I suspect the key is to get fresh-squeezed OJ rather than the industrial stuff we usually drink.)

I'm also not as familiar with Cognac as I am with Scotch, so I don't have much of interest to say there.

but I could see going pretty expensive with the Cognac, assuming it was just sitting there in the bottle! For one thing you are not using that much.

Well, you have to open a whole bottle of champagne. So that may limit the quality range of the champagne (not that it'd be "bad" but there's the "entry level" stuff and then levels above that, and I'm not sure how many levels up you'd go for that.)

I guess I wouldn't want something "unbalanced" where some ingredients are high quality and others are not.

I do not think anyone I know these days is going to be impressed with Chivas

The scotch culture has moved on from blends pretty much. Now it's all about the single malts. Now, Chivas may well still be a very enjoyable blend but ... yeah, it's not a "statement scotch" to make a show of bringing out at a gathering.

 

[The Knize]

I like a rusty nail. For that, I'd go for the best blend I had, if I had one on hand, or else the most "generic" single malt if there's no blend around. Sort of the JW Red ... JW Black ... Chivas ... Glenlivet 12 sort of range.

I really do not like JW Red. Black seems quite good to me, really. It has been a long time since I have had Chivas. Glenlivet 12 seems decent. The 18 quite good. I have not had a Rusty Nail in a long time. I wonder what Drambuie goes for these days.

I'd use the cheaper blends (up to and including JW Red) in a scotch-&-soda ... more of a drink I'd have at an "open bar" event and I don't like testing the quality of their house wine.

Interesting. I think I am drinking more bourbons these days.

So is this a cocktail with both champagne and cognac?

Yes. Way more champagne than cognac, sugar cube, bitters. A classic cocktail in some parts. A good one because of quality ingredients.

Well, you have to open a whole bottle of champagne. So that may limit the quality range of the champagne (not that it'd be "bad" but there's the "entry level" stuff and then levels above that, and I'm not sure how many levels up you'd go for that.)

Like all cognac, to me all real champagne is pretty darn good. The Costco stuff at about $20 is pretty good. The Mumm's Costco has had recently for about $23 seems really good to me. I think Costco had one for about $28, Piper, maybe that was even better. Vueve, my favorite house, is about $45, I think. Moet Chandon maybe a bit less. I guess my experience with the higher levels is not all that extensive. I have not been tempted, for instance, to go for the higher levels of Vueve, the vintages and the roses. Dom P does not blow me away. I do not know if I have ever had Crystal.

The scotch culture has moved on from blends pretty much. Now it's all about the single malts. Now, Chivas may well still be a very enjoyable blend but ... yeah, it's not a "statement scotch" to make a show of bringing out at a gathering.

Yes. All of that is correct to me. Like I said it has been a long time since I have had any Chivas. I am liking Monkey Shoulder pretty much for a blend. Maybe JW Geeen. Neither is going to be a statement Scotch. There are some fabulous Scotches out there.

 

[Multum in parvo]

Just a little sidestep on the Scotch thing...

There are the Blends (Malt/Grain) JW red, black, double black, Chivas, Grouse etc.

then the formerly Vatted now Blended MALTS (JW green, Monkey Shoulder, Grouse 12y)

and finally Single Malts starting with entry levels like NAS Singleton of Dufftown, Grant, etc.

For Blends Chivas 18 and the stupidly expensive JW Blue are a real treat but small producers like Compass Box, Laing, Hart are doing very interesting stuff on the blended side of things as well.

Back to the topic again I much prefer the Spanish/Portuguese way of Brandy/Aguardente as it is, to me at least, much more approachable than the French ones.

Also taking into account that VSOP/XO Cognac lands in the 4-10 year range and even an hors d'age might be closer to 12y than the reportedly 30+ years I'll stick with Single Vintage Bas Armagnac given the chance.

 

[TexLaw]

Category three ... pretty few and far between. The one exception would be if you know a bunch and have them over together for a liquor-themed-evening where the focus of everyone's conversation will be the liquor served. You need something more obscure than Chivas.

We had a night like that a little while back.



And that ain't all that came out.