Berserkers,
Just cracked open and sampled a bottle of my first ever Pineau des Charentes, which I picked up from the SAQ in Montreal after going head over heels for the similarly made Ratafia.
The main difference is that while Ratafia is derived from Champagne production raw grape juice and distilled eau de marc de Champagne, Pineau is derived from Cognac production raw juice and distilled eau de vie. The Pineau I cracked open was the Chateau de Montifaud Vieux, a white Pineau.
The most distinct difference was an extremely strong spirit nose that had the telltale “cooked” smell you also get from Cognac. Way, way stronger than Ratafia. Some rancio in there as well.
Naturally, the body was very full and in the mouth it tastes exactly like Cognac brandy, except much sweeter and fruitier with a lot less heat in the finish. Some nice butterscotch rancio flavors on the finish as well. This was really quite the opposite of Ratafia, which I found to have much more butterscotch rancio and less fruit flavor.
This said, the comparison I am drawn to make is not to its bretrhen Ratafia but to Cognac itself. This is very much Cognac disguising itself as wine – All the same flavors and similar heat but diluted enough to turn it into a wine.
Really quite good stuff and a very good bridge between wine and Cognac. The main issue I have with distilled whiskey and wine spirits is that you can taste the “cooked” flavor which I find doesn’t alway mesh well with the high spirit level. Pineau seems to have resolved that by lessening that cooked flavor with fresh fruit flavors. You can look at this as either dilute Cognac or a great substitute for 10 Year Old Tawny Port. I’m definitely a fan. Cheers. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
