Martell XO Exclusive Architect Edition

It is always difficult to try and understand how the big cognac houses perceive their customers loyalty to their products. Clearly brand loyalty is a powerful tool, but one has to ask how many XO products it is possible to launch on the market before questions get asked about what they are really buying.

The new Christian de Portzamparc exclusive XO will only be available in the Far East. It is said to be a blend of some of their older cognacs and almost certainly contains some from the Merinvil cellars they aquired a few years ago, where there were over 15,000 hl of pure spirit, some dating back to 1800.

But what then is the customer getting? Without being too cynical about Martell’s new cognac, the real answer is that there really is nothing new between this and hundreds of other XO cognacs. They are still multi blends of cognacs of various ages which professsionally an expert might be able to detect the difference, but which everybody else who buys this cognac will only recognise by the different presentation at an inflated price. Perhaps this is the reason why the flavour is not described any more!

Brandyclassics have extensive tasting notes on all of the brandies, cognacs and armagnacs we sell, whether they are from our exclusive Hermitage Cognac range or one of the many other small exclusive producers we support.