courvoisier

Courvoisier Packs a Punch with Heathrow Bar

Filed under: Spirits

Most consumers of cognac probably enjoy theirs neat and straight, but Courvoisier would like you to think about using it for mixed drinks. To that end, the French company is launching the Courvoisier Spirit of Punch initiative.

The centerpiece of the push will be a dedicated bar at Terminal 3 of London's Heathrow Airport, where parent company Beam Global Spirits & Wine expects as many as 5,000 passengers will stop by to sample its Spiced Orchard Punch – made with Courvoisier Exclusif fine champagne cognac – before it closes shop after just a couple of weeks.

Other initiatives in the Spirit of Punch will include displaying a giant punch-bowl good for 6,000 people and seminars on the history of punch.

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Tags: cognac, courvoisier, courvoisier exclusif, heathrow, london heathrow, punch, spirit of punch, travel retail

Courvoisier Introduces Connoisseur Collection, $3K L'Essence

by Michael B. Dougherty (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

Courvoisier has one request for the release, next month, of their age-stamped Connoisseur Collection: please, no cocktails.

Sitting down with Pierre Szersnovicz, the cognac house's director of spirit quality control and global brand ambassador, conversation wandered into a discussion of how, and why, someone would create a spirit simply for blending (nay, disappearing) into a mixed drink. While suitable for others, understandably so given the cocktail's continued reign, Szersnovicz emphasized that the newly created Connoisseur Collection was an appeal to the cognac aficionado and not the mixologist. To wit, Courvoisier will release two age declaring bottles in October, a 12-year and a 21-year (like whiskey, both numbers represent the youngest age in the blends). The 12-year old is a blend of stock from the crus of Borderies, Fins Bois and Grande Champagne, while the 21-year old is comprised entirely of the top-tier Grande Champagne. Double distilled, both bottlings are then put through a two-step aging process, first in young French oak barrels and then in reused casks to extract their tannis. The young barrels, which the house selects from a number of areas including Limousin, are given a medium char for subtle wood and vanilla notes, which avoids an aggressive, over-oaked profile. The results are evident in the 12-year, which shows light wood notes, spice and fruit with a finish of cloves and anise. As for the 21-year, the floral notes recede to highlight dried fruit, cooked honey and sandalwood.

And for those whom the market has come back to (or never went away from), Courvoisier introduces L'Essence. Housed in a Baccarat-designed decanter, which requires 30 craftsmen to produce and features a crystal stopper emblazoned with Napoleon's signet, L'Essence de Courvoisier contains a blend of 100 eaux-de-vies stretching back 60 to 70 years. A reliquary-like display box presents the bottle (which can be engraved) upright and illuminated by several LED lights. Wonderfully mature and complex, only 125 bottles will be available in the US, priced at $3,000. As for mixing this one, well, that's your call.

Tags: baccarat, cocktails, cognac, connoisseur collection, courvoisier, decanter, france, LEssence, spirits

History of Food Event Includes Dinner Inside A Reptile

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Earlier this month in passing I mentioned that Courvoisier and Bompas & Parr were hosting an event in London called the Complete History of Food, a walk-through dining experience and multi-course meal charting key revolutionary periods in food history held at a private London venue. Daily Finance's blogger Lauren Cooper was on the scene and has reported back with details and a video.

Food and history lovers were gathered in a ritzy mansion in Belgravia to enjoy an unusual tour of food through the ages. Some English celebs including designer Anya Hindmarch and Tom Parker-Bowles, shown at right, also attended the unique event. Lauren had her "humors" diagnosed medieval-style and prescribed a diet of cabbage, capers and artichokes as well as a dose of Courvoisier cognac (of course). Other adventures included a visit to a model pirate ship and a trip back to a 1950s family room where guests watched old sitcoms and scratched and sniffed a picture of a TV dinner of roast chicken and minted peas (probably about as tasty as an actual TV dinner).

Perhaps the most interesting part of her story is the dining table inside the body of a replica dinosaur, the setting for 1853 and the Iguanodon Dinner, thrown on New Year's Eve by biologist Richard Owen, who coined the word "dinosaur." Guests dined on duck confit with lentils and beetroot and sipped a summer punch of green tea, apple and elderflower and cognac.

Read about the final stop on the tour and check out the video on Daily Finance.

Tags: courvoisier, courvoisier the complete history of food

Courvoisier Truffles, A Small Splurge

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Sometimes a small splurge is also about taking the time to enjoy it. These Courvoisier truffles invite you to sit down and savor the experience.The truffles combine Bissinger's fine 55 percent dark chocolate with a cask-strength blend of Courvoisier XO cognac. The result is a rich taste kissed with a hint of warmth. A box of 18 pieces is $36.

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Tags: chocolates, courvoisier, smallsplurge, smallsplurges, truffles

Last of the $10,000 Ert� Courvoisier Cognac Collection

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

Courvoisier is selling off the very last sets of its rare bottles designed by famed Art Deco artist and fashion illustrator Erté 20 years ago. The legendary cognac house commissioned the seven bottle set from the Russian-born artist for its extraordinary blend of precious Grande Champagne cognacs, some dating back to 1892. The last remaining sets which had been held in reserve will now be sold for $10,000 apiece; only eight of them are making their way to the U.S. market in November and can be pre-ordered here . Each of the seven bottles' designs represents a different facet of the cognac making process:

Vigne (Vine) shows the importance of the soil and environment to the grapes produced to make cognac.
Vendanges (Harvest) celebrates the passion of perfection for which Courvoisier is best known.
Distillation illustrates the process of distillation as a woman riding a volatile giant peacock.
Vieillissement (Aging) symbolizes the aging process as a robed female emerging from darkness.
Degustation (Tasting) shows the blending process of the cognacs.
L'Esprit du Cognac (The Spirit of Cognac) interprets the cognac spirit as a woman standing majestically surrounded by grapes.
La Part Des Anges (Angel's Share) symbolizes part of the aging process where some of the spirits' volume is lost through evaporation.

Tags: Art Deco, ArtDeco, Cognac, Courvoisier, Erte, France

Courvoisier Exclusif, Cognac For Mixing

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

Cognac for mixing? That's the pitch behind the new Courvoisier Exclusif a new version of Courvoisier that is designed to be mixed in a cocktail. It is a blend of six to 12-year-old cognacs. The Exclusif will not dilute when served in a cocktail and recommended cocktails include a new version of the cosmopolitan and a champagne cocktail. The Courvoisier Exclusif sells for around $50. The recent launch party in Atlanta included Usher, shown at right. Clearly a move to help introduce the younger crowd to the world of cognac.

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Tags: cocktail, cognac, courvoisier