Delva Old Pale Cognac (1L, 40%)

This is an Old Pale cognac bottled in 1976 at 40% in a one-litre bottle. The spirit was distilled in the 1930s or earlier and barrelled before 1943. Its history is unusual. Barrels of cognac were taken in the Second World War at Tobruk, later passed to Allied hands near Anzio and bottled at the small Delva distillery in Nettuno. After the war the liquor was kept in wine caves beneath Linz, Austria, and came into the possession of the Austrian government in 1947. In 1976 the remaining several thousand bottles were bought by the U.S. Army Europe procurement office and sold through its stores in Western Europe.