Buying a gift for a man is not an easy task, especially if you don’t know the habits and preferences of a person. In this case, it is appropriate to give cognac. But the choice of drink will have to be approached very seriously. Choosing a good brandy as a gift to a man is a whole science. Take your time taking the first bottle from the shelf. Learn some important rules first.
Place of purchase
An adult should understand that in a small shop near the station or on the market square, good cognacs do not sell. For a serious purchase, you should go to the company store. Ideally, this should be a specialized outlet where drinkers do not scurry about in search of a cheap bottle of vodka.
Although not, an ideal purchase can be made by going to France, to areas where branded cognacs are produced. But there are other options.
Purchase price
A bottle of brandy as a gift for a man can not be cheap. Good brandies, in principle, are not cheap. It is all about technology and production traditions. To launch 1 liter of brandy or brandy on the market, the producer needs to use 10 liters of grape wine and spend several years of precious time. All this is very expensive.
Cheap alcoholic drinks can be infused with oak sawdust, instead of aging in barrels. They can also be made from a mixture of grape and grain alcohol. All this affects the quality, although significantly reduces the cost of production. Buying such drinks as a gift is not worth it.
The most dangerous option is to buy a cheap counterfeit. In this case, you not only spent your money in vain, but also can cause irreparable damage to your health.
How to distinguish fake
Thinking about what brandy to buy as a gift to a man, pay attention to the little things:
- Consider a cork, it can be made of cork wood, special silicone material or compacted sawdust. If the bottle is closed with a metal screw cap, this is a poor quality product or counterfeit.
- View the cork shell. She should tightly fit the neck of the bottle, not wincing anywhere.
- The bottle itself can only be glass. Strong alcohol reacts with plastic, releasing harmful substances.
- View the label. It should be glued perfectly evenly, without displacement.
- Examine the label. It contains complete information about the composition, production date and manufacturer. Moreover, all this should be written without errors.
- See how the excise stamp is pasted. It is always placed on top of the label.
- Turn the bottle over. A good brandy will leave a mark on the walls, and a few heavy drops will fall from the bottom.
- The color of a drink in a bottle can range from light brown to dark brown, but the contents always remain transparent.
If you are going to give a man a birthday present, it is better to choose cognac in a figured bottle. Complicating the production of containers, the manufacturer is reinsured against fakes. It is much simpler to pour counterfeit into ordinary bottles than to order a batch of special containers.
Drink origin
Imagine that you are standing in front of a counter in a store and want to choose a good cognac as a gift to a man. But there are so many bottles that the eyes simply run wide. Here you will find useful information about the origin of the drink. In fact, only those drinks that are produced in France are entitled to be called cognacs. In this country, alcohol production is highly respected. In addition to the fact that quality is strictly controlled by the state, well-known brands compete with each other and maintain their own reputation.
Drinks made in Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia are grape brandy. Among them, there are also decent options, but you need to carefully read the information on the labels. Of these options, Armenian and Georgian alcohol are most often chosen. Cognacs (brandy) from these countries are worthy of the attention of connoisseurs. Some even believe that cognacs of Armenian brands are no worse, for example, than the Courvoisier VSOP. But in this matter everyone has their own taste.
Determined with the brand
It is advisable to buy a good brandy as a gift to a man from well-known manufacturers. Such a gift will be appreciated. The leaders in this growth are: Hennessy, Rémy Martin, Courvoisier, Martell, Bisquit, Camus, Augier and Delamain.
If you want to choose a gift from an Armenian or Georgian manufacturer, then you will not be ashamed of a bottle of “Ani”, “Noah”, “Ararat”, “Egrisi”, “Armazi”. These refined aged drinks will not disappoint the hero of the occasion or a business partner.
Official Exposure Classification: France
The price of brandy depends on the aging of the drink. Excerpt is called infusion in barrels of grape alcohol. The time that the drink stood in the bottle after the spill is no longer taken into account.
French cognacs have their own aging classification. Mysterious letters are put on the front label, which are deciphered as follows:
- VS - cognacs aged in barrels for at least 2 years.
- Superior - 3 years of aging.
- VSOP - 4 years in an oak barrel.
- VVSOP - the drink has been ripening for at least 5 years.
- XO - exposure of the drink from 6 years and above.
Thus, if you have a bottle of Courvoisier VSOP in your hands, then you bought cognac, which was aged in an oak barrel for 4 years.
If the manufacturer reaches a special taste by the blending method, then the age of the cognac will be considered according to the youngest alcohol.
How are "Soviet cognacs" labeled
In the post-Soviet space, its own classification of cognacs was adopted . By the way, manufacturers, no matter what, persistently use the word "brandy" on labels. This alcoholic drink was produced in three types: ordinary, vintage and collection. Ordinary cognacs are assigned stars (each asterisk is a year of aging).
The classification of vintage cognacs is more complicated:
- KV (aged brandy) - aging time of 6-7 years.
- KVVK (aged cognac of the highest quality) - the age of the drink is 8-9 years.
- KS (old cognac) - aging 10 years.
- OS (very old) - a drink older than 12 years.
For collection cognacs , a aging period of 23 years or more was determined.
How to make a gift
And the last question: "How unusual is it to pack a bottle of cognac as a gift to a man?" And do I need to pack it at all?
It all depends on your taste. Good brandy in itself has a presentable appearance. It can be put in a narrow gift bag and this will be enough. Or you can pick up cognac in a gift box to look more solid. But keep in mind, drinks in gift boxes are significantly more expensive not because of quality, but because of packaging.
If you give a gift to a good friend and want to play a trick, you can glue a box from high-quality cardboard, for example, in the form of a milk bag, and sign that there is milk.
If you choose a good cognac as a gift to a man on a significant date or for a special occasion, then you can make a seal out of wax by writing on it how many years you can open your gift, and wrap the seal around the neck with a harsh thread.