Ragnaud Sabourin Fontvieille N°35 700mL NV

Ragnaud Sabourin Fontvieille N°35 is a long aged Grande Champagne Cognac from a single family estate at Ambleville.

Grande Champagne is the first cru of Cognac, a band of soft chalk south of the town planted overwhelmingly to Ugni Blanc, with older parcels of Folle Blanche and Colombard surviving on estates that value them. Ragnaud-Sabourin farms, distils and ages its own production, and its numbered bottlings step up in age through the range rather than serving as marketing tiers. Fontvieille sits well beyond the minimum ageing the XO category requires. The base wine is made without chaptalisation, as the appellation demands, distilled twice in copper alembic stills and matured in Limousin oak in the estate cellars, where humidity governs how the spirit concentrates over time. Nothing is added to adjust colour or sweetness.

Serve neat at room temperature in a tulip glass after dinner; stored upright and away from light, an opened bottle keeps well.