A new journey through time, and not the least, with this Cognac from René Rivières and counting 67 years in cask and 40 more years in jeanne … yes, this cognac would have been distilled « autour » 1913!
Imagine, someone distilled this cognac at the start of the last century, just a year before the First World War, and it will have remained in cask until 1981 having gone through 2 world conflicts and a multitude of major events!
We can hardly think that this cognac will have lived before Michel Drucker! Just that …. and 107 years later, Malternative, a young bottler from Belgium offers to bottle it and allow us to taste this historic monument.
Containing 40.5%, this dame Jeanne will have offered 42 bottles and is offered at a price of € 479 …. hey yes, an alcohol of more than a century for « just » € 479, it is all the same quite incredible!
Color
Orange gold
Nose
Fruity at first with a lot of apples, apricots, plums, grapes, citrus fruits as well as a fine woody note in the form of smoke, undergrowth, old oak and a light tobacco.
The nose is strangely lively for a small 40%, the spirit has nevertheless undergone a natural reduction during 107 years, it’s not nothing! But it does not seem to have lost its initial pep.
Over time, the wax from old furniture, the polish and honey complete this nose, very fruity and fresh for such an old juice … astonishing but really very beautiful!
Palate
Rather light, on more herbaceous and floral notes, the fruits seem to be more indented to then let the aging of this spirit express itself.
The notes of undergrowth, tea, tobacco, wax, freshly cut herbs are here more expressive and apart from an orange side, there are significantly less fruity traces.
The finish is medium, leaving us on a woody bitterness, slightly roasted and on a grapeseed side.
Price
479€
Conclusion
What to say in front of such a monument … to taste the fruit of the work of a complete stranger, more than a century after this one, is always something particularly strange.
Sitting comfortably in my living room, the gap between my comfort of tasting and his working or living conditions must be quite striking 🙂
Beyond all these considerations, this Cognac is really very good even if I find that the 1925 version was more to my taste.
The palate may be too marked by the barrel, without it becoming a wood juice. Just that the very exotic fruitiness of the previous one pleased me much more.
Question of tastes shall we say.
Score
89/100
