It's easy to tell that this is no run-of-the-mill Cognac. For one thing, the colour is lighter than most. That's because there's no caramel pigment added, part of Augier's no-additives policy. You'll also notice a lot more information on the bottle. Augier, a brand recently revived by French-based giant Pernod Ricard, bills itself as the first Cognac house. It has roots dating to 1643, the year Louis XIV, the great Sun King of Versailles fame, assumed the French throne and, more influentially, inspired a period of flamboyant armchair design.
When you're first, you get to teach people things, and that's what Augier seems keen to do on its labels. Most Cognac aficionados probably could not name the main grape of the wine from which France's best-known brandy is distilled. Augier tells you – in this case, it's ugni blanc (although they also use folle blanche in other bottlings). It also lists the geographic origin within the region whence the eau de vie hails (Petite Champagne in this case). And you'll learn lots more should you care to read the fine print. Most geeky of all, there's the percentage of "lees," or spent yeast, left in the base wine for distillation. Some Cognac houses filter out the yeast for a lighter base spirit (it's called the Martell method), while others, in what has become known as the Rémy method, leave them in for deeper base notes.
Augier produces two other Cognacs, L'Océanique and Le Singulier, which, like this one, are packaged in attractive, medicinal-vial-type cylindrical bottles. Bottled at 40.8-per-cent alcohol, Le Sauvage comes across much more smoothly than its light-amber colour might suggest, with honeyed peach and fig notes supported by woodsy spice, vanilla and smoke on a glossy texture. Think of it as Cognac's idea of a Scottish Highland single malt. Available in limited quantities at select Ontario LCBO stores.