Message 11007 of 39188 in General Discussion

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>The term 'cognac' is protected as a 'region of origin' mark, like champagne, 
>but although the brandy letters have meaning (oddly NOT French) they don't 
>actually mean anything!

It is this phrase which confused me most. I agree with you that there's more 
beyond classifications. The limitations from the law haven't got upper bounds 
and many good brands use longer matured liqour than needed or improve their 
liquor in some other way. In this way a VS of one brand could be better than a 
VSOP of another brand. But this is not always the case. VS VSOP or XO on the 
label makes a great difference. I think it is very important to know what the 
clasifications on the labels mean. There are for instance many posts in this 
forum about the fact that 'GOLD' doesn't mean the same as reposado or anejo.

http://www.cognac.fr/web_bnic/pdf/Juridique/DEC83082.PDF

Many books just list recipes and don't tell the right facts about the 
ingredients they use. But that's a topic from another tread.