François Voyer Hors d’Age 43%

François Voyer Hors d’Age 43%

Hors d’Age quality

I’ve got really nice memories of that one. And I’m now able to taste it properly. Very famous terroir of G.C, 40-60yo, 43%. Let’s go! 

Colour: Amber, gold lights. Medium irregular tears.

Nose: Great malted notes and hints of leathery smells in the background at first. Obvious G.C chalky scents. Delicious mix of candied plums and licorice sweets. Fresh, bright, vivid but you feel a wild rancio coming up. Stunning green tea scents, hints of peppermint and cardamom too. Complex and evolutive profile. Full of acacia honey and raisins notes. You also get a little bit of briny tones, something like extra virgin olive oil. Melted tannins from the nose part.

Palate: Oily texture and massive acidulous aromas. Each drop delivers a bunch of various tropical fruits, enhanced by fresh spiced notes on cardamom, Zan and cloves. Bang! Intense licorice aromas surrounded by toasted herbs shades like burnt thyme. Lingering acidulous red fruit sweets aromas. What a kind of G.C!

Last Notes: Very elegant floral shades of rosewater and dandelion. Extreme finesse, even if you feel a bit more of the oak influence with air. Bourbon vanilla and verbena infusion notes in the background. Back on the palate, you get another rancio shot, this time with unprecedented mushroomy aromas. Wow. Nice caramel sweets notes in the aftertaste. Wind of freshness again with white pepper shades. And a much-appreciated comeback from licorice notes.

Master-blending at its best. It’s an unusable pleasure to taste a 40-60yo G.C that still feels like a young and vivid cognac. Perfect oak influence, great evolution into the glass, complexity from the nose to the palate. Could it go higher than my favorite Hors d’Age? Well…

My very subjective note: 91/100

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