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And now for a little old cognac…
April 24, 2011 / Comments (0)
Hardy Cognac from 1863 - on display at the Benson Hotel in Portland OR
Only in Portland you say? At the conference we made the acquaintance of a talented and very knowledgable young bartender, Jonah Kobayashi, who held court every night at the Benson Hotel’s lovely old wood paneled bar. He was a cornucopia of information on all things alcohol related and made the creation of a Spanish Coffee into a veritable dance. These lovely decanters pictured above caught my eye – positioned on a high shelf behind the bar and so dramatically lit, I asked Jonah for the story behind them. It seems that they contained cognac – but not just any old cognac. This was the Hardy Perfection Series and it contained the world’s oldest unblended congnac dating from before 1870. The Daum crystal decanters that represent air, fire and earth and are numbered, dated and signed by one of the Hardy’s themselves. You could pick up one of these for yourself if you wanted to pay almost $7000 for a bottle. As it was – Jonah would have poured us a snifter for only $700.
Oh sure.
Apparently some people actually have taken him up on this. Just look at the level of cognac remaining in the bottle! If you manage to snag the very last dram of this excellent quaff you get to keep the decanter.
We passed on the experience and took a picture instead.
The world of distillation is indeed filled with wonders….
Jonah Kobayashi holding "Earth" - Hardy's Cognac
