Cognac Maxime Trijol XO Decanter Bottle, Grande Champagne, 1er Cru de Cognac 40%

Description

Cognac Maxime Trijol XO is presented in a very smart decanter bottle and wooden gift box and is produced from grapes grown in the Grande Champagne region of Cognac.

Cognac Maxime Trijol was founded in 1859. The family originally settled as growers and distillers in St Martial Sur Né, in the heart of the Cognac region. Their first still was installed in November 1859, and since then they have built on their expertise as growers and distillers, becoming professional distillers in 1962. Today, Maxime Trijol has twenty-two 2,500 litre Charentais pot stills and is now one of the largest distillers of Cognac. Unusually for a Cognac producer, Trijol also cultivates its own vines, as well as distilling and ageing Cognac, and can therefore oversee all the steps during the production process: growing the grapes, distillation, ageing and bottling.

The current head of the company, Jean-Jacques Trijol, is an artist, wielding his skilful palate through the process of distillation and blending, adapting – sometimes minutely – the spirit he collects from each still and varying his technique slightly depending on the harvest and the wine. Jean-Jacques was joined by his two daughters, Anne-Sophie and Pauline, in 2013 and the company remains an independent family firm.

The family have vineyards in both the Grande Champagne and Petit Champagne regions and the main grape variety grown is Ugni Blanc. Cognac basically begins with a simple white wine which, to become a Cognac, has to be distilled twice and Trijol distils the wines on the lees in pot stills to produce the best quality Cognacs. During the distillation process, the “heads” and “tails” are “cut” and only the “heart” of the distillation is used to produce the final product. This fine, colourless spirit is then aged in the very best, selected French oak casks (Limousin & Tronçais). The spirit is left to age in barrel for many years in the Trijol’s cellars whereby there is a slow exchange of flavours and aromas between the spirit, the oak barrel and the surrounding air through the natural pores of the oak. After the casks have reached the desired age the skill of the master blender is demonstrated in the way the different crus and Cognacs of varying ages are expertly blended together create the perfect brandy.

The youngest Cognac in an XO Cognac, by law, has to be a minimum of 10 years old; however, Maxime Trijol age their Cognacs much longer than the minimum required by the regulation, especially for their eau-de-vie crafted from the Grande Champagne and the average age of Cognac Maxime Trijol XO is a lot older than the minimum.