Ragnaud-Sabourin "Fontvieille #35" K&L Exclusive Cognac (750ml)

We've been on a serious brandy kick here lately in the spirits department. But for many years now the return of Ragnaud Sabourin at K&L has been a highlight every year when the first French spirits container hits our stores. It's almost criminal to compare this to anything else available on the market. When you do, you realize the prices being charged by the big Cognac houses are what is criminal. This is 35+ year old Grande Champagne Cognac for substantially less than $200. When you consider something like XO from a big house is easily 200 bucks, not all Grande Champagne fruit, heavy with sugar/caramel coloring, and just brushes past the 10 year mark (XO's legal minimum) with dollops of older spirit, it's laughable. This single estate in Fontvieille makes the most compelling Cognac available. Specs aside, the Cognac itself — it's sublime. The aromatics feel like fresh and baked apples have been drizzled with brown sugar and baking spices and held together with tons of brioche. It's livelier than any 35 year old spirit has a right to be. The oak is so beautifully integrated and balanced. The texture is supple and velvety. It's easily the best Cognac we have to offer at any price.

In many ways, I've come to consider Ragnaud Sabourin the gold standard in Grand Champagne Cognac production. Their tiny estate in the best part of Grand Champagne produces Ugni and Folle Blanche and eau-de-vie for some of the most expensive cognacs on the market today. Before I visited the legendary estate, I didn't really have a good understanding of what the quality difference in Grand Champagne was all about. I was also misunderstood why the elevage of great cognac included so called "additives". On the industial scale I understood that cognac needed to use additives to offer consistency across thousands of cases of young brandy, but I didn't see why a high quality estate would ever do that. Now after hearing from them what they exactly use to create their "boise" (additive), I much more accurately appreciate why the do this. The creation of this additive is not a short cut, but the very opposite. They cultivate and create an "extract of oak" from the ultra old under proof cognacs. So if the additives someone is using are actually 80+ year old cognac that are under proof and therefor not able to be bottled any longer as cognac, I'm all for it. So this blend is essentially 35 years old, but includes eau-de-vie much much older. The nose is surprisingly vibrant with a beautiful bouquet of ultra mature flavors: flambéed citrus peel, cocoa butter, stewed stone fruits - Mirabelle, nectarine etc. ON the palate, very forgiving and round, with tons of wild honey, orange blossom, smattered with clove and cinnamon spice. A truly delicious example of what the best cognac SHOULD taste like.

More power and brooding than the No20 bottling we got from Ragnaud-Sabourin, this is still a beautiful Cognac and a lot of fun to sip. Fresh and dried fruits mix and melt together. Syrupy cherries, plum, mixed berries, and peach swirl with allspice and cardamom. Heavier on the palate, the oak spice comes through with caramels and denser fruit to create pie-like flavors. Spice, caramel, and polished wood combine in a very long finish.

There are beautiful inviting aromas that are floral, rich and pretty. In the mouth the #35 is lush and round, a Cognac full of concentrated pleasure. A nice long finish tops off the experience.

Stronger vanilla and oak characters than the #20, this Ragnaud Sabourin also features beautiful honey and toffee flavors that are supple and smooth like the #20. I also get more spice flavors from this #35 that reminds me of home-baked apple pie that's drizzled with caramelized brown sugar. The nose is just beautiful with oak, nutmeg and vanilla and baked apple aromas. Truly worth the money as every single drop is quality in your glass. Best cognac I've ever had!

Wow. That's almost all this review said, just "wow" because this absolutely impressed me from first sight. A really beautiful color in the bottle and in the glass, showing its 35 years. The nose is full and rich, with very little alcohol on the nose encouraging long and wistful inhales as this is savored. Just gobs of fresh-cut apple and peach are accompanied with an orange-blossom florality and then quickly overshadowed by a rich vanilla. The palate is absolutely phenomenal with that fruit and vanilla accompanied by toasted herbal spices and rich barrel spices. I thought that the #20 was smooth but this puts that to shame. This might just be a benchmark spirit, setting the bar for all Cognacs to follow. I'll let you know.

The nose on the No 35 shows more oak and vanilla than No 20, but the mouthfeel is still surprisingly delicate. This Cognac is very smooth, yet not overly polished, as it still exhibits plenty of spice and punchy fruit flavors. In my opinion the Ragnaud-Sabourin offerings are the best Cognacs on the shelf and any novice or aficionado will not be disappointed with this bottling.

I never drank Cognac before coming to work at K&L and I fear that I will never be able to live now in a place where I cannot get the Cognac we carry. In other words, I have been ruined by the good stuff. Having just tried the Ragnaud Sabourin #35 I do not know where to go from here except for to buy a bottle. It is ridiculously good, complex, balanced, so incredibly smooth. There were a host of amazing flavors present, but honestly I stopped taking notes when I tried it and simply enjoyed it.

Tasting the Fontevieille 35 Cognac from Ragnaud Sabourin made me wish for a big fire, a big chair and a big snifter. This mature, old fashioned Cognac has plenty of the rancio character that the big houses reserve for their blends in fancy bottles at 10x the price. Tasting it today reminded me of many of the dusty old Louis XIII's and Triomphe's that I have been treated to over the years. I found this expansive, deep and complex Cognac worthy of reflection at the end of the evening. It is a very fine value in top class Cognac!

Similiar in style to the No. 20 but, with more vanilla, richness and oak. This cognac also has the stone fruit and nectarine notes with a very, very long finish. Very smooth, and a cognac to linger over an enjoy by itself.

This is an outstanding addition to our brandy portfolio- with powerful flavors of coffee, caramel, and honey over a lightly sweet but long lasting finish. Perfect, dense, rich, and wonderful!