In creating C by Courvoisier, a blend of small-batch Cognacs specially selected from 50 winegrowers in the Fin Bois Cru region are carefully crafted by the house’s master blender. From there, it goes through a double-barrel aging process. First up is a young barrel that brings out a strong, wood character and gives it a full-bodied, intense flavor, says Patrice Pinet, Master Blender for Courvoisier. It is then aged in mature barrels to round out the taste profile and deliver a silky finish.

The end result is, according to Courvoisier, a rich Cognac with a good balance between floral, fruity aromas and wood, with notes of carnation, orange peel, clove, toast and crusty bread.

C by Courvoisier is available this month, and a 750ml bottle of the 80 proof Cognac will retail for about $35.

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The data-driven whiskey guide was created to give readers an easier way to find the best spirit in a particular category, all while factoring in price and value. We’ve started with whiskey and will hopefully expand to other spirits down the line.

The ratings are numerical values on a scale of 1 to 100. But rather than assigning a definitive score to each individual whiskey, the FindTheBest Smart Rating is a weighted average of five whiskey rating sources: the Beverage Testing Institute, the International Wine and Spirits Competition, the LA Whiskey Society, the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and Wine Enthusiast Magazine. So a score of 100 does not denote a perfect whiskey. Instead, it indicates a spirit that consistently received top marks from the aforementioned ratings institutions and sits at the top of its class when compared to other whiskeys.

We hope you enjoy the guide and find it helpful. You can access it by clicking the Whiskey Guide link in the top navigation bar of every page or by visiting whiskey.cocktailenthusiast.com.

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While the bottle prominently features an artichoke, one can hardly claim that Cynar tastes like artichokes. Rather, it’s a bittersweet Italian aperitif (though it can be considered a valid digestivo given its bitter properties) comprised of 13 herbs and plants. It’s much less bitter than amari like Fernet and Campari, and its relatively low alcohol level – just 16.5% – makes it even easier to toss down the hatch.

Cynar is often served as a shot or mixed with soda, and in certain European countries, it’s a popular addition to orange juice. Others have found that subbing Cynar for Campari in a Negroni or Americano yields good results, something we can heartily vouch for. That said, here are a few more intricate cocktails calling for Cynar.

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The below drink is an original creation from Chicago’s fine cocktail bar, The Violet Hour.

The Art of Choke

1 1⁄4 oz Cynar
1 oz White Rum
1⁄4 oz Green Chartreuse
1⁄8 oz Rich demerara syrup
1⁄8 oz Lime juice
1 dash Angostura Bitters
Mint

Stir all ingredients including mint sprig until cold. Strain into rocks glass over large ice cube, and garnish with a fresh mint sprig.

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This drink is a Cocktail Enthusiast original. It’s deeply flavorful, harmonious and delicious.

Baroque and Famous

2 oz Flor de Cana 7-Year Rum
3/4 oz Cynar
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1 dash Angostura Bitters
1 dash Orange Bitters

Stir all ingredients with ice, then strain into a cocktail glass. Express orange peel and garnish.

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Here’s a cocktail created by Cameron Bogue of Bar Pleiades in New York’s Surrey Hotel.

The Sanny

2 oz Bourbon
1 1⁄2 oz Cynar
1⁄4 oz Maraschino Liqueur
2 dash Celery bitters
Lemon peel

Stir all ingredients, then strain into rocks glass over ice. Express lemon peel and garnish.

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That’s a good trio to start with. But we’re always up for further experimentation, so if you’ve got a favorite Cynar cocktail, let us know.

This first drink comes courtesy of Jason Littrell and Marshall Altier of JBird in New York. In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, it serves two. “One drink, two straws, please.”

Sadie Hawkin’s Sling (pictured)

4 oz Buffalo Trace Bourbon
2 oz pineapple juice
1 oz lemon juice
.5 oz apricot liqueur
.75 oz pear brandy
.75 oz Falernum
.5 oz cane syrup
2 dashes tiki bitters

Serve in a whole pineapple. Garnish with fresh fruit, flowers, herbs and intertwining bendy-straws.

Next up, a few Valentine’s Day cocktails from Hendrick’s Gin. The Primrose is a refreshing drink that ups the romance factor with rose syrup.

Primrose

1 ½ oz Hendrick’s Gin
½ oz Lillet Rouge
1 ½ oz apple juice
½ oz rose syrup
½ oz fresh lemon juice
2  dashes orange bitters

Shake and strain up into a chilled a martini glass. Garnish with a rose petal.

A take on the classic Floradora template, this tasty concoction is light and fresh, with a pink Valentine’s hue.

Floradora

1.5 oz Hendrick’s Gin
1/2 oz lime juice
1/2 oz raspberry syrup
Ginger beer

In a long glass, combine first three ingredients with ice. Stir, then top with Ginger Beer. Garnish with a raspberry and a lime wheel.

Pink grapefruit juice and grenadine create a holiday-themed take on the Tom Collins.

Pink Victrola (by Jim Ryan)

1.5 oz Hendrick’s Gin
1.5 oz fresh pink grapefruit juice
½ oz fresh lemon juice
½ oz simple syrup
1 barspoon real grenadine

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Express grapefruit peel oils on top of drink, and garnish with the peel.

In traditional mezcal production, hearts of the maquey plant, a form of agave, are placed underground and roasted using layers of hot stones and banana leaf wrappings. This process does not allow smoke to escape, so the maguey hearts, or “pinas,” are imbued with a distinctive smoky flavor. Zignum Mezcal, however, extracts the juices of the plants before steam-cooking them above ground, which eliminates the smoky taste. Zignum says this results in a silky smooth spirit with a clean taste that allows consumers to fully appreciate the flavor of the green agave in its true form. Let’s see how they did.

Zignum Reposado Mezcal is aged for two months and has a shimmering, straw-to-gold colored appearance in the glass. It’s light and fresh on the nose, with aromas of vanilla, coconut and bananas. It’s more reminiscent of rum than most mezcals. Take a sip and that agave starts to come through, plus a background of light earth and smoke. There’s more vanilla and fruit, plus some brown sugar. It’s medium-bodied and very smooth, and it finishes dry with soft notes of oak.

Those easy-drinking qualities and its incredible price point – about half the price of others in the category – make Zignum a potential gateway mezcal for drinkers new to the spirit. Though my personal mezcal baseline leans toward the smoky stuff (also see: Islay Scotch), there’s no denying that Zignum Reposado Mezcal is delicious. The smoothness from start to finish marks a well-made product, and while it is highly mixable, I’m pretty content drinking it straight.

Stats:
- 40% Alcohol by Volume
- $28

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Don Julio 70 Anejo Claro is the newest tequila in the Don Julio lineup, and it’s certainly the most unique. The spirit begins its life as 18-month-old Don Julio Añejo. From there, a unique filtering process strips away the color. Besides just removing the color, however, the process is supposed to recover the agave notes of the Blanco without removing the richness of the Anejo. Let’s take it for a spin.

Dive in to find huge aromas and flavors. First up though, is a powerful, unappealing hit of rubber cement. Thankfully, that subsides and gives way to bananas, citrus and agave – traditional Blanco notes – plus vanilla, caramel and toasted oak, flavors usually associated with Anejos. These nicer notes try to shine through, but they’re overwhelmed by a strong, woody presence that’s much harsher than the rich, smooth wood notes of the Anejo.

Drinking 70 Anejo Claro is an interesting, albeit confusing, experience. It’s got more going for it than the green, rough-around-the-edges Blanco, but not necessarily in a good way. And it pales in comparison to the smooth and creamy Anejo. Consider it a collector’s item for sure, but for $70, we’ll take a bottle of the Anejo and a 12-pack, please.

Stats:
- 40% Alcohol by Volume
- $70

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The intense program requires an absolute understanding of the gin category,. But beyond that, competitors must be excellent hosts, technically skilled bartenders, creative mixologists and engaging personalities.

Any bartender, anywhere, can enter the Gin Connoisseur Program. It doesn’t matter which gin your bar pours or whether G’Vine Gin is available in your country. Every gin-loving bartender has an equal chance of making it to the World Finals in Cognac, France in June 2012.

Besides that trip to Cognac, additional prizes include:

- An intercontinental bar tour to a couple of the spirits industry’s biggest events: Tales of the Cocktail and Bar Convent Berlin
- A year’s supply of G’Vine Gin for your bar
- Platinum vine flower pin
- $3,000 and recognition as the finest gin bartender on the planet

More details –

All entrants must complete an online exam at www.legcp.fr on or before May 1, 2012.

Bartenders who can attend a preliminary contest hosted in the UK, Scotland, France, Spain, Canada & the USA throughout the spring can qualify for the World Finals in Cognac in June. The preliminaries will begin with a seminar – How the Gin Business Works (e.g. sales figures, calculating margins, etc.) – and the challenges include creative mixology and blind nosing and tasting.

Bartenders who can’t attend a preliminary contest can enter as wild cards by completing the same online exams but making an Xtranormal cartoon video using the theme “French Classics.” (An example.)

World Finalists will be announced May 15, 2012.

Best of luck to all competitors, and for more info or to sign up, visit http://www.legcp.fr/.

Nosing and tasting spirits isn’t easy. It’s fun, but it isn’t easy. And according to NEAT creators George Manska and Christine Crnek, typical tasting glasses make it even more difficult. Most tasting glasses are tulip-shaped and direct all of a spirit’s aromas directly upward to the nose. This results in strong alcoholic top notes, which can hinder one’s assessment of the spirit.

Enter NEAT (Naturally Engineered Aroma Technology), a newly-designed glass based on scientific principles of evaporation and aroma technology. In describing the glass, engineer George Manska explains –

The widely flared lip and its proximity to the surface of the liquid allows ethanol to escape before nosing and positions the nose directly over the concentrated vapors. Size and proportional relationships are everything in the design.

Does it work? UNLV thinks so. Studies prove that the glass dissipates the ethanol, and only the flavorful esters and aromas remain. This allows the drinker to smell the spirit underneath its alcohol, which means more detectable and definitive characteristics and a more accurate assessment of the spirit.

Sounds good to us. If you’re interested in trying them for yourself, a NEAT two-glass package costs $40.

Jefferson’s founder and master blender Trey Zoeller combed through many barrels of aged rye whiskeys before settling on the right components for Jefferson’s Rye. Let’s see how he did.

On the nose, Jefferson’s Rye is full of sugar and spice. In this case, brown sugar and cinnamon, plus hints of caramel and nutmeg. Drink up to find toasty grains, honey and creamy vanilla, all wrapped up in a cocoon of cooling mint. The whiskey finishes smoothly with hints of toffee and pepper.

Overall, it really is quite similar to WhistlePig, but at a more affordable price point. Both are whiskeys worth knowing, but we’ll give the nod to Jefferson’s for affordability.

An interesting note – Jefferson’s presumably comes from rye whiskey stocks that are primarily used in small quantities for blending into Canadian whiskeys. It’s great to see brands like Jefferson’s and WhistlePig featuring these barrels as straight ryes.

Stats:
- 47% Alcohol by Volume
- $40

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The new whiskey gets its name from its double aging process. Woodford Reserve Double Oaked is first aged in toasted, charred barrels created at Woodford’s cooperage. This initial maturation provides much of the color and flavor, but the second step is what makes the spirit unique. It’s moved to another custom barrel – one that’s been toasted twice as long as the initial barrel, and then very lightly charred. The heavy toast qualities impart lots of soft, sweet oak characteristics to the whiskey.

Woodford Reserve Double Oaked is sweet and spicy on the nose, with lots of vanilla, honey, chocolate and cinnamon. The entry brings more vanilla, plus caramel, baked apples and baking spices. Mid-palate it becomes quite creamy and hints at marzipan before finishing with lingering notes of oak and honey. Though the oak is very present throughout, the whiskey remains well-balanced and smooth from start to finish, never killing the drinker’s palate with too much oak.

Look for Woodford Reserve Double Oaked on store shelves beginning in March. It clocks in at 90.4 proof (45.2% alcohol by volume), and is expected to retail for $50 per bottle.

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For more about whiskey, check out our whiskey guide.