Vallein Tercinier Tres Vieux Fins Bois 46%

Vallein Tercinier Tres Vieux Fins Bois 46%

Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. With work, a kid, and everything else in between, it’s been hard to take the time to put notes down on paper. Also, you can chalk some of it up to fatigue…or laziness, depending on what you think of me. I've got a few posts in the pipeline, so stay tuned! Anyways, this review is of the VT Tres Vieux Fins Bois. We’ve covered VT a tad in other posts but I eventually plan on doing a more detailed post in the future. In the meantime, here's a "Plain Jane" review. This bottle is a composition of two casks, a 1938 and a 1941. Pretty amazing that this only runs around ~250/300sh. It’s bottled at a responsible but unchallenging 46%. Here’s what I think:

Nose: guava, papaya, daffodils, nutmeg, and cocoa powder

Palate: citrus and citrus rind, tropical fruits, pink grapefruit, a light herbal character, too, like basil or thyme…A little floral, too, and finally some raw almond skin (like a drying bitterness)

Finish: medium length, the citrus bitterness lingers (which I love)

Thoughts:
I really love this bottle, and VT overall. They are one of my favorite cognac producers and deserve much more mainstream street cred than they currently get. This is an easy A minus and I personally bought 3 of these.

Grade: A Minus

A quick side discussion: talking with Ryan, there is one small flaw we’ve noticed with VT. Ryan has had the VT Fins Bois open for about ~8 months and was recently sharing it with friends. It had been a while since he tasted it, and when he poured it, the flavors didn’t quite pop like they did when it was first opened. He opened a VT Lot 65 that night to compare and he said it gushed with tropical fruits and crushed the VT Fins Bois. There might be an issue with VT and extended oxygen exposure. In a a side-by-side tasting with a freshly cracked VT Fins Bois and Lot 65, we both slightly preferred the Fins Bois.

I also want to mention that the first VT Lot 65 I opened lost some of its vibrancy towards the end of the bottle (with probably 1/8th left and around 6 months of O2 exposure). I didn’t notice flavor degradation with the second VT Lot 65 I opened because I drank it quickly over a couple of months (so crushable and delicious). Someone else in a cognac enthusiast group pointed out an O2 exposure issue in another VT bottling.

I am in no way discouraging you from buying VT. They bottle some of the best cognac out there. On top of that, there is no way to tell if this happens to all of their bottlings or just a few (maybe the addition of water plays a role?). I’ve gone through a lot of bottles that have lost some vibrancy with extended O2 exposure, and others that have taken over a year to open up – it’s a crap shoot as to what is going to happen. At no time has a VT bottle broken bad on me and tasted bad, and they are absolutely delicious upon opening and remain that way for months.

I’m addressing this potential issue because I’m a nerd and also wanted to let you know that if you plan on opening a bottle of the VT Fins Bois, you might want to plan on finishing it within a 6 month window – given how delish it is, it’s not a difficult task.