Kelt Vsop Cognac
Kelt is the No. 1 cognac in the world because:
Each cask of the eau de vieis aged separately before blending. After blending, the cognac is put back into the original casks, filled to 70% capacity, with a 30% air cavity
The cask are then sent to the French port of LeHavre, where they are loaded onto the top deck of an Evergreen Lines ship, for a 90 day Tour du Monde, French for circling the world
Limousin oak is very porous, containing the two most important components cellarmasters look for in cognac, vanilla and nutmeg On the voyage, the rolling of the ship helps the cognac slosh around in the casks so that all of the spirit comes in contact with the Limousin oak barrels, extracting more vanilla, nutmeg, and tannins from casks than other cognacs
The temperature and barometric pressure fluctuates during the sea voyage, causing the casks staves to expand and contract, releasing cask air and taking in sea air
During the ocean voyage, 7-9% of the product is lost through evaporation. Cognacs, which are simply aged in cellars on land, lose about 0.75 to 2% per year. The advantage to the Kelt method is that the higher losses through evaporation take the alcohol off the nose. More importantly, these high levels of evaporation accelerate the aging process by more than 7 years
After 90 days at sea, the cognac returns to LeHavre, and is returned to the cellars in Cognac, where it rests for 65 days before bottling. This allows the alcohol molecules to remarry with the water molecules before bottling
Every bottle of Kelt Cognac comes with a certificate from Olev Kelt guaranteeing that the cognac has made the Tour du Monde voyage. The certificate includes a list of the ports visited on the Tour du Monde, and is signed by the ship's captain
