Unfortunately, many of the good old brands that we used to associate with quality products have used their reputation to sell mucho cases and let quality slip.My first pair of Reeboks was a fine pair of shoes made in England, the last pair I bought was probably made in a third world sweatshop and fell apart soon after I bought them.

The key is to find the producers who are moving up, not those that view their reputations as cash cows to milk.

Has anyone seen Lisa Dinsmore's piece on Paso Robles? It's about how popular it's become. The good and the bad side haha.
http://www.oneforthetable.com/oftt/articles/paso-gains-popularity.html

Nice spam.

bb - that's the fact. There's nothing to destroy a good wine (or spirit) like success.

Seems we are simpatico. A little Prosecco or Cava and campari is just a fine way to start the evening!Does that combination have a name?

I recently bought a 1974 Le Basque too and I have to say it's one of the finest Armagnacs I've had.

Wens

I had a very similar experience with Cognac. Suddenly it became obvious that we were drinking sweet (almost cloying) un-animated spirit that had none of explosive flavors or subtleties of the Cognacs of yesterday. That is , until I played the Blues Passions Blues Festival in Cognac (one of the biggest blues festivals in the world) and my guitar player (my brother Larry) fell in love with a beautiful Cognacais and decided to stay and start a family in Cognac. He went over to the Cognateque near his house and told them our problem: we find the name brand Cognacs too sweet and carmel-ly. We wondered if there were Cognacs that were more austere and closer to Armagnac. He told Larry to buy a bottle of Jean-Luc Pasquet's VSOP. He said this was made by Pasquet on his 6 hectare vineyard and is a shining example of how family made, artisan Cognacs (when made skillfully) reign supreme over the industrial Cognacs we are all used to. Long story short we became fast friends with Pasquet (Grand Champagne) and started really learning about Artisan Cognac, with his guidance. The biggest illumination was how terroir driven this spirit is. There are several crus in Cognac and all have differnt terroir and micro-climates. The big Four (hennessy,Remy, Martell and Courvoisier) buy their Eau de vie from these small producers and blend them into a consistent generic product. Often losing the individual characteristics of each cru. When we started to taste estate bottled Cognacs we realized there was a treasure trove of different styled Cognacs that were excellently crafted and very unique. It became clear that the myth that negociant-blended Cognacs are the best Cognacs, is very similar to the antiquated notion that blended Scotch was superior to Single Malt Scotch. So we organized 8 family owned (for generations) producers and created Family Tradition Cognac. And we are setting out to revolutionize the global perception of this elegant libation. We have our port folio in Illinois (Fine Vines LLC) , New York, NJ and CT, (Michael Skurnik Wines). Our entry level Cognac starts at around 45 bucks a bottle and those whup the tail off the XO products listed at around 125-185 bucks a pop. Our Cognacs have no caramel or "boise" (oak) added, they are not cold filterd, they under go super slow alcohol reduction etc etc. Our web site is familytraditioncognac.com. I know this is a bit spam-ish of me to post this but we do not have the multi million dollar marketing budgets of the big guys and have to use all grass roots methods to get the word out. This really is a service to the small family owned producers who have been plantationized by the big four. They are forced to sell their Eau de Vie to them in order to survive. Already two of our families have been able to break their contracts with the big guys and concentrate on making their own, luscious, artisan Brandy! Let’s support them!! Armagnac is cool but double distillation still rocks!!

Matthew Skoller Chicago,IL