Spirit Style

What do VS, VSOP and XO mean in Cognac? They're age categories, not quality judgments of good versus bad, standing for Very Special, Very Superior Old Pale and Extra Old. Behind each lies a minimum age set by the comptes.

VS is the everyday category. More than half of all bottles, around 55 percent according to 2025 figures, fall into this group, and according to the trade body BNIC, most of it is drunk mixed around the world, in cocktails or as a long drink. It's young, fruity and mixes well.

VSOP, the second major category at 38 percent, spends at least four years in cask and is considered a spirit suitable for sipping neat as well. XO, from ten years upward, makes up only a small share at 6.8 percent. Dried fruit and spice are typical here. Volumes in 2025 fell by 23.2 percent for XO and older, by 16.2 percent for VS, and by 11.5 percent for VSOP.

How does Cognac differ from brandy? Both are wine distillates, but Cognac is governed by stricter rules: it must come from the defined region, be distilled twice in a pot still, and age for at least two years in oak. EU law requires brandy to spend only one year in large casks, or six months in small ones.

Names like Réserve or VO denote the same category as VSOP, namely Compte 4. Hors d'âge and Extra correspond to XO, at Compte 10. Knowing these terms makes it possible to compare bottles across different houses.

Plenty of room remains between the categories, since a house's cellar master blends spirits of different vintages and casks so that a given Cognac tastes consistent year after year. This consistency is the real craft of the great houses.