I decided to take a chance on Costco's house brand Cognac:
At $45.99 for XO how bad could it be?
Pretty dang decent actually. It's a blend of 12-21 year old Cognacs and produced by Peyrat. As near as I can tell the primary difference between this and the regular label Peyrat is that the regular label starts at 15 years old and is without an upper age:
Probably better stuff but it's also more than twice the price.
To me, Cognac tends to have either a more fruit forward profile or a more toffee-like (not sweetie sugar) forward profile and the Costco stuff is the latter. It has a great sweetness without being cloying and there's a touch of spice or oak which I think might be the influence of the barrel. It's also very smooth. I've had more complex Cognacs but I also had to pay more.
Overall, just a nice Cognac for a great price.
At $45.99 for XO how bad could it be?
Pretty dang decent actually. It's a blend of 12-21 year old Cognacs and produced by Peyrat. As near as I can tell the primary difference between this and the regular label Peyrat is that the regular label starts at 15 years old and is without an upper age:
Probably better stuff but it's also more than twice the price.
To me, Cognac tends to have either a more fruit forward profile or a more toffee-like (not sweetie sugar) forward profile and the Costco stuff is the latter. It has a great sweetness without being cloying and there's a touch of spice or oak which I think might be the influence of the barrel. It's also very smooth. I've had more complex Cognacs but I also had to pay more.
Overall, just a nice Cognac for a great price.