{"id":1567,"date":"2011-10-16T21:54:05","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T02:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1567"},"modified":"2012-05-01T10:13:43","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T15:13:43","slug":"the-hennessys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1567","title":{"rendered":"The Hennessys"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Not sure how many people read No\u00ebl Coward\u2019s short stories any more but I found a copy of The Complete Stories<\/em> at a garage sale last week and have been enjoying them enormously. No one else describes children as \u201cartificial-looking\u201d or an elderly Englishwoman as \u201cwriggling a little, like a dog waiting to have a ball thrown for it.\u201d Somehow these tales read like loving parodies of Somerset Maugham, written by someone who wished he had the romantic sincerity to be Maugham but was far too witty and ironic for that to be possible. They are an absolute delight.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As are the other two precious things on my desk tonight \u2013 a bottle of Hennessy Paradis and another of Richard Hennessy, both on loan from a kind friend and to be returned tomorrow. I have enjoyed many treats over the years but these two are right up there near the very pinnacle of treatdom, the Kanchenjunga of self-indulgence. Paradis is simply spectacular in its subtlety, complexity and length. It\u2019s a blend of \u201cseveral hundred\u201d rare eaux-de-vie from the Hennessy archives, aged between 25 and 130 years old and first created in 1979 by Maurice Filioux, the company\u2019s master blender at the time. The bottle before me was blended by Maurice\u2019s grandson, Yann Filioux, from the seventh generation of the same family of Hennessy\u2019s master blenders. Even as he bottles this batch, the man must be setting aside young spirits that his great-great grand-descendant will blend for future Paradis\u2026<\/p>\n

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Richard Hennessy (left) and Paradis (right).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s the length that impresses so much. It just lingers on the palate for ages and ages so there\u2019s no need to raise the old crystal snifter again until at least ten minutes have ticked by. The aromas lifting into the room are very hard to describe. Like very good Cognac only much more so. I could list the fleeting impressions but it would be like a painting-by-numbers kit of some Turner masterpiece \u2013 not a great deal of use. Okay, there\u2019s dried cherry and tangerine, spiced prunes and lots of floral notes\u2026 No, it\u2019s no use. It just smells like sublime Cognac, as smooth and elegant as a silk dressing gown but rather more expensive at $652 a bottle.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But bargains are relative. The other bottle beside me, Richard Hennessy, takes everything very much farther. It\u2019s named for the Richard Hennessy who came across to France from Ireland and founded the house in 1765. This is a blend of over a hundred separate eaux-de-vie, some of them distilled in the early 19th<\/sup> century. Almost two hundred years old, in fact. Older than Napoleon (Napoleon III, that is, the emperor for whom \u201cNapoleon Brandy\u201d is named), and older than phylloxera \u2013 an astonishing time capsule that is somehow still vibrant and muscular. It costs about $6,000 and just to taste it is an extraordinary privilege. Some very old brown spirits (a handful of\u00a0glorious old rums and whiskies, for instance) have a ribald, fruity old age, like Christmas puddings or plum cakes, beloved old grandpas sitting by the fire with excellent stories to tell and a twinkle in their eye. These superb antique Cognacs are more awe-inspiring than that \u2013 still so elegant, so powerful, so disciplined. The tales they tell are immortal truths, as plangent and as perfectly phrased as Mr. Coward\u2019s dialogue.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hennessy is the biggest Cognac house, responsible for 40% of Cognac sold in the world. It\u2019s important to them to be seen as more than just large and successful, however. Hence these two masterpieces, on sale at the LCBO right now and most handsomely packaged. I will never own a Turner or a snow leopard or a Caribbean island, but it\u2019s good to know they exist.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not sure how many people read No\u00ebl Coward\u2019s short stories any more but I found a copy of The Complete Stories at a garage sale last week and have been enjoying them enormously. No one else describes children as \u201cartificial-looking\u201d or an elderly Englishwoman as \u201cwriggling a little, like a dog waiting to have a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[98,1,100,101],"tags":[504,505],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1567"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1967,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567\/revisions\/1967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}