Chateau de Beaulon XO Premier Single Estate Cognac 12 y/o

Château de Beaulon itself is a quite historic building being built by the de Vinsons family around 1480, before, in 1510, passing to the Beaulon family, whose name it has retained. Fast forward to more recent times and in 1965 Christian Thomas acquired the Château and it's from here that the family business still continues. During that time Christian has also overseen extensive renovations resulting in the Château being listed as a historical monument in 1987. Their cognacs are distilled from the traditional grape varieties in four small copper pot stills, which generate a wealth of fruity aroma compounds compared to larger stills and at Beaulon they pride themselves on ageing their cognac well beyond the legal minimum for each level, resulting in a wonderful blend of aromatic spirit and smooth wood. They also produce excellent examples of the local speciality Pineau des Charentes in which year-old cognac is blended with freshly pressed grape juice before being matured for several years to make a mellow, fruity aperitif.