(FORTUNE Magazine) – SUCCESSION COGNAC Great cognac requires the perfect balance of grape, barrel wood, and time -- what residents of France's cognac region call rancio charentais. But perfection comes at a price: $3,750 for Courvoisier's Succession ''J.L.'' brand. Most cognacs are a blend of vintages from different parts of France's Charente Valley. But Succession has been made with grapes harvested from the vineyards of one Charente family -- with initials J.L. -- as early as the turn of the century. Amateur and professional tasters alike find the cognac exceptionally delicate yet complex, with traces of spice that linger on the tongue long after it has been drunk. And Succession is free of the woody flavor sometimes found in old cognacs. Those who buy Succession will find it packaged in a hand-made mahogany and ebony box, along with a legal document certifying the cognac's authenticity. Like most things worth having, the supply of Succession is limited -- 595 bottles total, 195 of which will be sold in the U.S.

PORTABLE CD-ROM PLAYER With CD-ROM, you can carry an entire training manual or multimedia presentation on a single disk. But to use it, you need a CD-ROM drive hooked to a desktop computer. Until now. Sony's portable Multimedia CD-ROM Player lets you access the graphics, video, audio, and text on the disks anywhere, anytime. Unlike the Sony Multimedia Data Discman, which runs smaller multimedia disks, the Multimedia Player uses standard-size ones. The player can operate both CD-ROM and more advanced CD-ROM XA disks, as well as audio CDs. The catch: You can't use the disks you already have, except the audio CDs. Disks developed for the player have special software that functions as a startup program. However, most of these disks will play on a regular CD-ROM drive. The new Sony has a built-in speaker, a two-hour battery, and a 4.5- inch-diagonal LCD screen, and can be cabled to a TV for color output. It will be available in November for $1,000, packaged with IBM's Secrets of Power Negotiating on disk plus a coupon for another software title. For $100 more, you can get different software plus a coupon for cables and stereo headphones. Also out in November: 60 titles for the player at about $50 each.

THIN TORTILLA CHIPS Peanut butter and jelly, hot dogs and mustard, tortilla chips and salsa -- some foods were just meant to go together. Frito-Lay wants to change that with Doritos Tortilla Thins, super-thin white corn tortilla chips meant to be eaten straight out of the bag like potato chips. The Thins are one-third thinner than most regular tortilla chips and somewhat larger. Watch out, though. They still have about the same amount of fat per ounce as standard chips. Lightly Salted and Salsa 'N Cheese varieties are available now in Tulsa and Omaha. The rest of the country will have to wait until summer. Price: $2.99 for a one-pound bag.

CHILDPROOF SOFTWARE Turn your young child loose on the family computer, look away, and your valuable files might be zapped into the ether. KidDesk, by Edmark of Redmond, Washington, gives youngsters access to their own programs but not to yours. Children can choose from six pictorial desktop menus with themes like Circus and Dinosaur that appear whenever the computer is turned on. By punching a secret combination of keys, parents can exit the desk and go on to their own work. The KidDesk screen features accessories that might appear on a real desk, only they are more entertaining. Among them: a calendar, a talking clock, a calculator, and a nameplate and picture that represent the child. The program's sound can be heard through the computer's speaker, though a soundboard or external speech device improves the quality. KidDesk, recommended for ages 3 through 10, comes in an IBM-compatible PC or Macintosh version for $40.