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French cognac and its lesser known neighbor, Armagnac, are rising in popularity amid a surge of interest in the Sazerac or Old Fashioned, whiskey cocktails with cognac in their heritage. All fine, but a silky, 30-year old cognac or a rich Armagnac served neat in a tulip-shaped glass will probably have you putting that Old Fashioned aside in a second.

A bottle of Rémy Martin Louis XIII will cost you $3,000, but for $150 or less you can linger over a top French brandy, full of layered, spicy aromas and flavors. The first step is to get up to speed on what makes for excellence among the cognac-colored. Both Armagnac and cognac are a brandy, or distilled wine. Cognac is produced near the city of the same name, a drive of less than two hours north of Bordeaux, while Armagnac is produced in Gascogne, a similar drive south. Unlike distilled spirits made from grains, brandy evokes the underlying fruit. The grapes bring liveliness as well as flavor, with tastes ranging from fresh apples to dried figs, depending on the age of the underlying spirit or eau de vie, “water of life.”

As with wine, aging leads to deeper flavor and complexity, or layers of taste. VS, or “very special,” on the label means that the youngest spirits in the bottle have been aged at least two years in oak barrels; for VSOP, “very superior old pale,” spirits have been aged at least four years; for XO, “extra old,” the minimum is six years. Most brandy is blended from eau de vie aged over different time periods to get the right taste, although there are exceptions to the broad categories.

Chateau du Tariquet's vineyards where they grow ugni blanc, baco, and folle blanche for Armagnac, as well as varietals for an expansive collection of white wines. Chateau du Tariquet

The main grape in better known cognac is ugni blanc, a low-alcohol, acidic fruit called Trebbiano in Italy. Hold a glass at table level and then raise it to your nose to take in scents of violets and apples for a young cognac, or dried figs and nuts if aged. Alexandre Quintin, international ambassador manager for Rémy Martin, says the taste should be “harmonious” —balanced between sweet, bitter, salty and acidic—as well as opulent, and the finish should be long, meaning the taste lingers.

Cognac is dominated by producers Rémy Martin, Martell, Hennessy and Courvoisier, and they all make quality, crowd-pleasing cognacs. But for a special treat, says Flavien Desoblin, owner of Brandy Library in New York’s TriBeCa, try a cognac made from a smaller producer, like Paul Giraud, which uses grapes grown in Cognac's “Grande Champagne,” a region with chalky soils similar to Champagne itself. Like many cognac producers, Paul Giraud supplies larger houses with eau du vie, but his own bottles “will give you an intense and beautifully elegant and oh so different cognac,” Desoblin says.

Armagnac shares characteristics with cognac, although it’s distilled in a column versus a pot still, and the result is bolder — more bourbon than Scotch. Gascogne is a farming area in southwestern France known for foie gras, so Armagnac’s rustic flavor suits the lives and tastes of farmers who also raise ducks and corn. A perfect example is Chateau de Ravignan’s 1985 Bas Armagnac ($115 at Astor Wines & Spirits). The color is deep caramel, from years in black oak, and the flavor is equally big, spicy and rich.

Bolder flavors don’t mean Armagnac can’t deliver a silky and sophisticated experience. Consider the fresh offerings from Chateau du Tariquet. The label’s owner and fifth generation winemaker Armin Grassa was in New York recently, offering tastes of his blends as well as a 1995 vintage ($40 to $140 a bottle). His non-vintage Armagnac is distilled to a low concentration of alcohol and finished with petites eaux, “a little water,” that’s been barreled, too, so it doesn’t detract harshly from the final product. And this blend actually preserves the identity of the grapes, 60% ugni blanc and 40% baco, so the result is an amber that is filled with fruit flavors and vanilla in the younger spirit, and dried fruit and toasted flavors in the aged ones.

Grassa swishes his Armagnac in the glass like a good wine, to release the aromas, and drinks it at about 60 degrees Fahrenheit to bring out the flavors. With an XO, or vintage Armagnac, Grassa advises you should “chew” the liquid in your mouth so your entire palate is in contact with the amber liquid. As with cognac, the flavor should linger.

Armagnac rightfully conjures images of sitting before a fireplace with a good book. But a VSOP works just fine as a before-dinner drink on a summer evening, and a young cognac mixed with ginger ale and ice is a beautiful late-afternoon drink when you’re sitting out on the porch.