Cognac ergo sum

"I drink, therefore I am." Cognac drinking, in my mind, used to be the provenance of bathrobed older men sitting in their regal masculine dens, Japanese karaoke businessmen out on the prowl, or golfers hunkering down after a leisurely game. All alcohols and their different brands are associated with a particular type of people and activity, and these associations are handy when it comes to marketing, but these can also end up being very limiting. Red wine and meat, white wine and fish, for instance, are rudimentary rules for wine and food pairing – but many wine lovers have gotten over these restrictions and listened instead to their taste buds’ reactions to the nuances within all kinds of gastronomic permutations.

It is a rather pleasant experience to have your notions proven wrong.

I have never tasted cognac before as I thought it would burn like fire and damnation. I was introduced to it, however, in the new-school way of drinking, which breaks its own established rules. Remy Martin was slyly added to a menu, in place of where wine, or even an aperitif, would normally be. The Fine Champagne Cognac Dinner I was invited to at the Nishiki Restaurant at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel offered tasty Japanese dishes along with novel ways of consuming Remy.

Fine Champagne Cognac, to the horribly uninformed like me, is made exclusively of eaux-de-vie selected from only two of the six crus or growing regions – Grande Champagne and Petit Champagne. It was only in 1998 that the idea of developing a meal accompanied exclusively by cognac was launched, and since then much exciting work has been going on in the area of food matching.

First off, a refreshing Remy Side Car to slake off that preprandial thirst (6/10 Cognac VSOP, 3/10 Cointreau, 1/10 lemon juice shaken and served in a martini glass). This drink could very well be the next lychee martini: It is light-tasting yet potent, fruity and easy to drink. The meal began with delicious appetizers of chopped salmon head in sweet soy sauce and a potato and cabbage salad in Japanese mayo.

What Japanese meal would be complete without miso soup? We lifted our lids and began to sup on the clear liquids when Bleng Gallardo, the Remy woman, halted us and pointed at the mini-Remy version standing inconspicuously next to the bowls. "Put it in, put it all in!" she declared and so we daringly did. Miso soup with cognac turned out to be quite an excellent adventure, adding a completely new dimension to the humble broth, and suffice it to say after that bowl of soup, we were quite ready to party.

Assorted sashimi came next and here we tried frozen VSOP. In some other age, it was considered a sin to freeze or even chill cognac. The most traditional, as in 400 years old, way of drinking cognac in the Cognac region of France was a l’eau – by just adding water. However, VSOP has complex aromas and tastes, different elements of which are enhanced with an ice cube or two. Cognac doesn’t literally freeze solid, but after three days in the freezer it develops a deep viscosity, and it goes down very smooth indeed, like champagne without the bubbles.

With the prawn and vegetable tempura, we tried Remy XOE served chilled. XOE stands for Extra Old Excellence, and it contains eaux-de-vie from 10 to 37 years old. It is a dark amber color and much heavier on the palate compared to the paler Very Superior Old Pale, which is aged from four to 14 years. That iconic sunflower-shaped bottle it comes in is actually a Louis XIII decanter. The final main course of broiled eel was complemented with more XOE, but this time on the rocks, which released a subtly different set of mature flavors and velvety textures. I was beginning to feel quite the sophisticate.

To cap dessert off, we had Remy Peach (4 cl. VSOP, 1 cl. Bols Peach liqueur, fill with 7-up and ice), the perfect summer drink and something you’ll want to sip all day long on the beach as an alternative to the usual hackneyed piña colada.

There are many ways to drink Remy – not anymore just an after-dinner indulgence – and there may be one for you, the key here is to experiment, especially with food, as it is surprisingly a very versatile drink.

Some other suggestions: VSOP and blue cheese for an exciting and spicy alliance; VSOP in shark’s fin soup for another heady combination; VSOP and chocolate have long been good friends, try with green tea ice cream; and XOE with duck foie gras for its smooth and complex harmony.

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The "Only Remy" promo is available in various participating outlets, like Nishiki and Summer Palace at Edsa Shangri-la and Nuvo in Greenbelt. Enjoy a free glass of frozen Remy when you buy two appetizers, or buy a bottle of VSOP and get a free appetizer plus gift items.