Reading age statements
VS, VSOP, XO, XXO: what the letters on Cognac mean
VS, VSOP and XO indicate the minimum age of the youngest spirit in a Cognac: VS at least two years, VSOP at least four years, and XO, since April 1, 2018, at least ten years in oak. Before that, six years sufficed for XO. Age is tracked in Comptes, age brackets that advance every year on April 1.
What do VS, VSOP and XO mean on Cognac?
The letters are English because the Cognac trade ran heavily through England and the Netherlands for centuries. VS stands for Very Special, VSOP for Very Superior Old Pale, and XO for Extra Old. These are not marketing inventions but age statements regulated in the official specifications, tied to a minimum age.
VS, equivalent to three stars, requires at least two years in oak. VSOP, also known as Réserve or VO, requires four years. XO, equivalent to Hors d'âge, Extra and several other terms, requires ten years. The key word is minimum: a good VSOP often contains considerably older spirits. However, the stated age always follows the youngest component of the blend — this applies to all spirits across the EU.
The P in VSOP stands for Pale. According to tradition, British customers in the 19th century would order an old Cognac that was meant to stay pale without added coloring. The abbreviation has stuck, even though today's VSOPs are by no means especially pale. The letters thus describe age brackets, not color or flavor.
Comptes: how Cognac counts its age
The age of a Cognac spirit is tracked using Comptes, a kind of official age ledger. Right after distillation, a spirit sits in Compte 00. On April 1 following the harvest, it moves to Compte 0, and every subsequent April 1 raises the count by one. Because distillation must be completed by March 31, all spirits from a given vintage begin counting together.
This produces the age brackets. VS requires Compte 2, VSOP requires Compte 4, the designation Napoléon requires Compte 6, and XO and Hors d'âge have required Compte 10 since 2018. The system makes age verifiable without having to date every single cask individually. The bookkeeping runs through the houses' stock records and is audited.
An example makes this tangible. Grapes from autumn 2020 are distilled in winter, and the spirit sits in Compte 00. On April 1, 2021, it moves to Compte 0, on April 1, 2022 to Compte 1, and on April 1, 2023 to Compte 2. From that day it may be bottled as VS. For VSOP, it must wait until April 1, 2025.
The 2018 rule: XO turns ten
Until 2018, a Cognac could be labeled XO if its youngest spirit was six years old. Since April 1, 2018, it must be ten years. The industry responded to a market in which XO was perceived as the top tier, even though the minimum requirement was barely above the Napoléon level. Armagnac followed suit the same year, also raising its XO requirement to ten years.
For buyers, this has a simple consequence. An XO from a more recent bottling necessarily contains spirits of at least ten years. Older bottles from before the change may contain younger components without this being evident on the label. Either way, the letters say nothing about the average age of the contents.
Napoléon, Hors d'âge, XXO: the remaining designations
The official specifications list a total of 32 age designations. Many are synonyms: Réserve and VO sit at the VSOP level, Hors d'âge and Extra at the XO level. Napoléon falls in between at six years. For XXO, Extra Extra Old, the industry association BNIC applied for a minimum age of 14 years in 2018; before that, XXO was merely a term used by individual houses.
A common misconception concerns aging in the bottle. Unlike wine, Cognac essentially stops developing once bottled, since it no longer has contact with wood. A VS from twenty years ago remains a VS. What matters more for flavor is the house style: according to BNIC figures, in 2025 around 55 percent of bottles sold were VS, 38 percent VSOP, and just under 7 percent XO and older grades.