XO Cognacs - Napoléon

A Napoleon, or X.O (for Extra Old ), also called Hors d'âge, is a cognac which youngest eau-de-vie is at least six and a half years old.

A Cognac may be sold only when its youngest eau-de-vie reaches a minimum of two and a half years old, as of the first day of October following the harvest of the grapes.

Only the years of storage in oak barrels count to determine its age. Once transferred into glass, Cognac stops maturing. It stands still.

However, most Cognac houses will use Cognacs much older than those required by law, allowing X.Os to reach a minimum of twenty years old, in order to reveal their very best.
 
XO is perhaps one of the vaguest classifications regarding quality, and should’t be taken at face value without further search. Some of the XOs you can find in our site are certainly under-priced, while some others, which, of course, you will NOT find here at Le Cognac, may be quite mediocre . In fact, selecting Cognacs with a reasonably quality/price ratios is one of our raisons d’être.
 
On the other hand, regarding Cognac, beyond a certain level of quality one enters into the realm of subjectivity. And then, of course, there is always a premium in rarity. When a product is scarce, if demand remains strong, it is only natural that prices go up. This is exactly what we have been seeing with high-end Cognac prices in the last few years because of the huge Chinese demand.
 
As a rule, we would say that the XOs present at Le Cognac are all good value in general market terms. Some of them are indeed very good value.

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