Godet XO Fine Champagne Cognac 700ml

The Godet family has been distilling in the port city of La Rochelle since 1588, now guided by its fifteenth generation and shaped by five centuries of seafaring history. Gédéon-Louis Godet's eighteenth-century appointment as Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Dutch Navy speaks to the family's long ties with the Atlantic, ties that still define the house's cellars today, where the humid, salt-tinged sea air is credited with giving Godet cognacs their distinctive maritime character.

This XO blends Grande Champagne, making up more than half the assemblage, with Petite Champagne eaux-de-vie, aged an average of twenty-five years in oak barrels and assembled at the house's cellars facing the ocean in La Rochelle. That coastal aging is central to the Godet style, believed to lend the cognac a subtle salinity and refinement distinct from cognacs matured further inland.

The nose opens with violet and jasmine, giving way to honeyed plum and old leather. On the palate, freshness and aromatic subtlety yield to a deep rancio, with the long, velvety mouthfeel typical of a well-aged cognac balanced by surprisingly bright, fresh top notes.