GIFTS: Our Favorite Holiday Gift ~ Landy XO Cognac
| Santa was generous and thoughtul. After all, what can you give to a food editor, aside from a trainer who shows up at the office (no time to get to the gym) and a spa cuisine personal chef to offset the far-from-spa calories we consume all day on the job?
Now we have something in common with hip hoppers Snoop Dogg and E-40—they drink the same Landy Cognac we received as a gift. Yes, packaging is part of the impact of this lovely bottle of XO Cognac, with its noble, gold-plated greyhound-topped cork; but the Cognac is equally noteworthy. The Cognac in our Greyhound Decanter is aged to super-smoothness for 35 years. By comparison, a VSOP is aged for at least 4.5 years, although there’s no limit on how long it can be aged; Landy’s VSOP is aged 12 years. For sure, when the last drop of Cognac is finished, we’ll be repurposing this beautiful decanter. And the XO Cognac? The nose yields plum, leather, sandalwood and tobacco; on the palate the plummy fruit has accents of spice along with the leather and sandlewood, and a touch of tobacco. The Cognac has the balance and long finish that you’d expect from an X.O. The list price is $119.95, but we found it online for $99.99 at WineGlobe.com (and at highly-inflated prices on some gift sites).
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Landy’s Greyhound Decanter, filled with |
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| The VSOP received a double gold medal at this year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition for its complex aromatic, palate of soft vanilla, honey, spice and candied fruit flavors and long finish. Landy is considered “affordable luxury”: We found the award-winning VSOP for $39.99 and the VS for $22.99.
We sure hope the economy improves in 2010, or we’ll be refilling our Greyhound Decanter with the VSOP. |
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