{"title":"Cognac","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrench cognac from the Charente. The travel-retail standard pour.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"hennessy-vs-cognac","title":"Hennessy V.S Cognac","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVanilla, toasted oak, candied citrus. The cognac everyone knows.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe foundation pour of the world's largest cognac house, aged at least two years in French oak. On the shelf of every diaspora corner store from Brooklyn to Brixton, and the back-bar of every Basseterre restaurant worth eating at.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe diaspora default. The aunty in Brooklyn brings a bottle home; the uncle in Birmingham keeps one for when she visits. It moves in both directions on every trip. Cleared airside at RLB, it usually beats the home-market price once tax is in, which is why there is always someone standing in the cognac aisle.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHennessy and ginger, lime wedge.\u003c\/strong\u003e Every wedding, christening, Christmas, and after-funeral lunch in the Caribbean.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hennessy","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46261915353260,"sku":"BER-HENNESSY-0001","price":74.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0751\/5140\/9324\/files\/2023_Hennessy_V.S._Cognac.jpg?v=1779071389"},{"product_id":"hennessy-xo-cognac","title":"Hennessy X.O Cognac","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDried fruit, dark spice, oak, long warm finish.\u003c\/strong\u003e The bottle that invented the X.O category.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1870, Maurice Hennessy ordered a private blend from his own cellars for his close friends. He requested eaux-de-vie significantly older than the standard V.S.O.P and stamped the bottles \"X.O\" (Extra Old). The friends asked for more. Other cognac houses noticed. By the end of the 1870s, X.O had become a category designation across the industry. The bottle in your hand is the original. Every other X.O on the back-bar is a response to it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA blend of more than a hundred eaux-de-vie, the youngest aged ten years and the oldest considerably more. 700ml. 40% ABV.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eTasting\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNose.\u003c\/strong\u003e Deep and complex. Dried fig, candied orange peel, dark chocolate, leather, cinnamon, vanilla, oak.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePalate.\u003c\/strong\u003e Full-bodied. Sweet at the front (dried fruit, honey), then darker spice through the mid-palate (clove, nutmeg, candied ginger), with the oak structure holding everything in place.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFinish.\u003c\/strong\u003e Very long. Warm, slightly spiced, layered.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBody.\u003c\/strong\u003e Full.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eServe\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNeat in a tulip glass.\u003c\/strong\u003e Five minutes to warm. No ice. This is the way to actually taste it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne large cube.\u003c\/strong\u003e Acceptable in hot weather, slightly muting the spice register.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNever mixed.\u003c\/strong\u003e The X.O is a sipper. If a cocktail recipe asks for X.O, the recipe is wrong or the bartender is wealthy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFor the long evening.\u003c\/strong\u003e A snifter after dinner, a square of seventy per cent dark chocolate alongside. A small cup of strong black coffee, separate, not mixed. The pour you bring out when the conversation is good and there is no early start.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eThe story\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Hennessy and Fillioux families have run the Hennessy cellars between them since 1765. The Fillioux master-blender role is now in its eighth generation; Renaud Fillioux de Gironde took over from his uncle Yann in 2017. The X.O recipe sits in their hands. The blend draws on more than a hundred eaux-de-vie from the Hennessy reserves, aged in French Limousin oak.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe bottle's shape was designed by master glassmaker Gérald Daniel Calabrese in 1947 and has remained substantially unchanged. The decanter is itself a recognised industrial design.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy this bottle is at Bellyful\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe traditional after-dinner luxury gift. RLB travel-retail pricing clears most home markets once tax is included, particularly for travellers heading to the US (where state liquor taxes push X.O retail to its highest international price). The gift to bring to a senior relative, a senior client, or anyone whose previous brown spirit you cannot quite remember.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn St Kitts, this is the bottle a grateful guest brings to their host on day one of a stay. Not for drinking that night. For leaving on the host's shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eAwards and press\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe original X.O cognac (Hennessy, 1870). The designation the category now follows.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBottle shape designed by Gérald Daniel Calabrese in 1947, recognised as a piece of twentieth-century industrial design.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFrom the world's largest cognac house (Hennessy, founded 1765, ~40% of global cognac sales).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEighth-generation Fillioux master-blender lineage.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat.\u003c\/strong\u003e 700ml · 40% ABV · Blend of more than 100 eaux-de-vie, youngest 10 years aged.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eProducer.\u003c\/strong\u003e Hennessy, founded 1765. Cognac, France. Owned by Moët Hennessy \/ LVMH.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTier.\u003c\/strong\u003e Passing Through.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hennessy","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46261915418796,"sku":"BER-HENNESSY-0002","price":295.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0751\/5140\/9324\/files\/Cognac_Hennessy_XO.jpg?v=1779071308"},{"product_id":"hennessy-pure-white","title":"Hennessy Pure White Cognac (Travel Exclusive)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePear, floral, citrus, light oak.\u003c\/strong\u003e The Caribbean's worst-kept cognac secret.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHennessy Pure White was created in the 1920s for the French Riviera market and never released in the United States. It is, however, openly available across much of the Caribbean and at duty-free worldwide. Lighter, fresher, and more floral than the V.S. Drinks like a chilled white spirit. The cognac you serve in summer, on the rocks.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e700ml. 40% ABV. Travel exclusive. RLB only.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eTasting\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNose.\u003c\/strong\u003e Light and floral. Pear, white grape, orange blossom, a thin oak note underneath.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePalate.\u003c\/strong\u003e Soft, clean, vibrant. Citrus, pear, light vanilla. The oak is almost absent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFinish.\u003c\/strong\u003e Short and clean. Refreshing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBody.\u003c\/strong\u003e Light.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eServe\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCold on the rocks.\u003c\/strong\u003e A tall glass, two large cubes, no garnish. The classic on-the-island pour.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePure White and Sprite.\u003c\/strong\u003e 60ml Pure White, 150ml cold lemon-lime soda, lime wedge in the glass. Sounds wrong on paper, drinks right in the Caribbean sun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePure White and pineapple juice.\u003c\/strong\u003e 50ml Pure White, 100ml fresh pineapple juice, dash of bitters. The drink you order at a Cockleshell Beach bar mid-afternoon. Now you can take the recipe home.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSpritz-adjacent.\u003c\/strong\u003e 50ml Pure White, 75ml cold tonic, 25ml fresh grapefruit juice, sprig of rosemary. The light-cognac version of a Tom Collins.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy this bottle is at Bellyful\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHennessy Pure White is not sold in the United States. Cannot be ordered, cannot be shipped, cannot be Amazon Primed. The on-island purchase from a Caribbean duty-free is the only legal route into an American suitcase. The bottle every traveller from the US asks for by name at RLB.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBritish travellers can buy it at home through specialist importers. American travellers truly cannot. The bottle weighs differently in different hands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eThe story\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHennessy Pure White was originally blended for the French Riviera in the 1920s, designed as a lighter, fresher cognac for warm-weather drinking. It uses younger eaux-de-vie from the Borderies and Fins Bois crus, producing a more floral, less oak-driven profile than the V.S.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe bottle's path into Caribbean duty-free reflects mid-twentieth-century Hennessy distribution strategy. The brand never extended Pure White to the US market, and the bottle developed a cult following among Caribbean drinkers and visiting Americans precisely because of its absence at home. It has become one of the strongest single-bottle conversion items in Caribbean travel retail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eAwards and press\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTravel Retail Exclusive (sold at duty-free worldwide, not US off-trade)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOne of the most-asked-for items in Caribbean and African travel retail, by name\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFrom Hennessy, world's largest cognac house, founded 1765\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEighth-generation Fillioux master-blender lineage\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat.\u003c\/strong\u003e 700ml · 40% ABV · Travel exclusive. RLB only. Best served chilled.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eProducer.\u003c\/strong\u003e Hennessy, founded 1765. Cognac, France. Owned by Moët Hennessy \/ LVMH.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTier.\u003c\/strong\u003e Passing Through.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hennessy","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46261915451564,"sku":"BER-HENNESSY-0003","price":79.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0751\/5140\/9324\/files\/Hennessypurewhite.png?v=1779579062"}],"url":"https:\/\/belly.ful.kn\/collections\/drink-cognac.oembed","provider":"Bellyful","version":"1.0","type":"link"}