Courvoisier XO

About this wine

Courvoisier XO is a blended selection of eaux de vie with a velvety texture and pronounced candied orange and crème brûlée notes. The nose also shows dried fig, raisin and floral iris that add layered complexity. On the palate you will find dried fruit, toasted almond and warm spice, with a long smooth finish and gentle oak influence from toasted barrels. The blend is built mainly from Ugni Blanc base wines distilled into eaux de vie from the Cognac crus, and the components in XO are commonly aged between about 11 and 25 years before assembly. Bottled at 40 percent alcohol by volume, this expression reflects Courvoisier’s house style of using fine grained oak and humid aging conditions near the Charente river to soften and integrate the fruit and floral notes.

About the grape

Ugni Blanc, the local name for the Trebbiano Toscano family, has been the principal grape of Cognac for centuries because its thin skins, high acidity and low sugar make a neutral, long lived wine ideal for double distillation. Planted widely across the Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies and Fin Bois crus, it thrives on the region's limestone and clay soils and gives consistent yields that distillers value. In Courvoisier XO the house sources Ugni Blanc based wines from those top crus, distills them in traditional Charentais copper pot stills and then ages the resulting eaux de vie in fine grained French oak to build structure for long aging. Viticulturally the variety is often managed for moderate yields and trained using cane pruning such as the double guyot method to control vigor and preserve the acidity needed for quality distillation.

Quick facts

• 💧 The iconic teardrop shaped bottle for Courvoisier XO was created to look like a drop of perfume rippling across a pool, a design introduced by the house in the 1980s.
• 👑 Courvoisier leans on the story that Napoleon favored its cognac, and the brand embraced that history by using his silhouette and the phrase The Brandy of Napoleon in its imagery.
• 🛢️ Although Courvoisier XO tastes like old oak and long aging, the house itself does not own vineyards or do all of its distilling, it blends carefully sourced Ugni Blanc eaux de vie from the region.
• 🔷 Some prestige XO bottles feature a glass stopper with 30 facets, chosen to symbolize the longest aged Grand Champagne eaux de vie used in the blend.
• 🌸 The modern Courvoisier XO owes much to a 1984 reformulation by the house, which established the floral and perfumed style many fans recognize today.

Palate profile

Producer

Maison Courvoisier traces its roots to the early 19th century and was established in Jarnac in 1828 by Félix Courvoisier. The house built its reputation through careful selection and blending of eaux de vie rather than by owning vineyards or large distilleries. Its château on the banks of the Charente serves as the historic headquarters and a visitor center with a museum celebrating the brand heritage. Courvoisier long associated itself with Napoleon in its marketing and preserved many objects and stories linked to that era. The brand passed into the ownership of Campari Group in May 2024, while continuing to produce its floral and fruity style of cognac in the Cognac region of France.