BRANDY REVIVAL IN CALIFORNIA: SAVE WHISKY DRINK BRANDY

Save Whisky Drink Brandy

California Brandy is coming back!

I have known it for a long time and it is starting to look like I was right.
Why I anticipated this revival?

When I came to California in 1996 for the first time I was surprised by the concept of 'single grape varietal'. A concept rather foreign to me as I was coming from the traditional blended grape varietals from the local appellation which is the way wines are presented in France. This discovery was later to become my impetus for producing Monteru Single Grape Brandyin 2008.

As I ventured into the wine world in the early 2000s in California and later into the distilled spirits it appeared to me that it was just a matter of time before California would reclaim the brandy category it once had.

===>The evidence were:

• California and its concept of wine and entrepreneurial way of life,
• California single grape varietal wine thriving business,
• Micro-brewery and later Micro-distillation boom,
• Spirits venturing into single ingredients such as Rye, specific type of Potatoes, wheat versus corn and etc. I noticed a real interest for studying the process and original ingredients,
• Regain and later explosion for the Mixology, combined with the search of better ingredients,
• People interests for organic, handmade, farm-to-table, sustainability, ... eventually culminating to local is better than far away things. A concept which is well executed by brands such as Tito's Vodka (starting from Texas) or FEW (starting from Chicago's suburbs) for instance.

All of these factors combined and symbiotically moving have increased my confidence in the return of brandy.

Recent Links:
The definitive guide to California brandy old and new
in San Francisco Gate
By Lou Bustamante, October 22, 2018
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/The-definitive-guide-to-California-brandy-old-and-13323980.php

California brandy is better than ever. Will consumers notice?
in San Francisco Chronicle
By Lou Bustamante, Oct. 20, 2018
https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/California-brandy-is-better-than-ever-Will-13323976.php?fbclid=IwAR0hGYCS3fCwsy_yeChrX7DnTTvlvXvRxCjme1HK_fS35Yg1758euKLyQAU#photo-16334737

ARMAGNAC ENCANTADA: A New Independent Bottler in Armagnac

Armagnac L'Encantada

K&LWINES tells us all about it!

L’Encantada is a new armagnac independent bottlerwhich has been bringing out excellent Armagnacs says K&LWines.

To understand what makes this stuff special, you have to understand a little bit about Armagnac. French brandy production, especially in Armagnac, is much different than the American distilled spirits industry. There are a few large producers, but by in large, Armagnac is made by farmers and wine makers who distill some of their extra grapes in a travelling still that comes around to the farms.

Many of them just stick the casks in their barns and basements, a little bit here, a little bit there. Eventually they will bottle them, maybe for family and friends, maybe for small markets, or sell them to a larger company that bottles brandy or even makes liqueur; it's sort of a Gascon retirement fund.

L'Encantada was essentially knocking on farm doors and asking to buy these casks.  They have casks from around seven small producers, a number of which only made brandy for a limited time, and all of their brandies are bottled at cask strength without additives.

Source and Read More at: K&LWINES.com

A NEW BRANDY FOR CALIFORNIA: FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA BRANDY

After Gallo, the Coppola family is also getting into the brandy category.
What is going on!!!

"Maria Gaetana Agnesi 1799 Brandy from Francis Ford Coppola sourced by Family Coppola.
The grape based brandies for Agnesi 1799 are sought, sourced, and blended by The Family Coppola and our winery’s master blender from barrel stocks in California’s finest brandy distilleries.

Our initial brandy release is a blend of 2012 Dolcetto grapes from Russian River Valley and 2009 French Colombard grapes from the Central Valley. Agnesi 1799 is a true taste of California soil, ambient yeast, naturally filtered water, and warm climate of the Golden State. Through careful selection of barrels and delicate blending of water and spirit, our brandy assumes the best qualities of the artisanally-crafted individual spirits.

By sourcing brandy made in different types of stills, both Old World Alembic Charentais stills and modern column stills, and from various local grapes, we are able to craft a proprietary blend that we believe is greater than the sum of its parts." (from Coppola Website)

Small batch 5 years old Brandy!

TASTING NOTES

Nose

Layered cinnamon in front, small amount of tobacco. Hints of vanilla and almonds give it a well-rounded profile of oak characters.

Taste

Overall high complexity. Baking spices on entry. Small hints of clove. Toasted bread in mid pallet. Pleasant mouth coating, some sweetness in the mid-palate, and a silky smooth finish. Very clean overall, with some honey.


"Agnesi 1799 is as fine as any Old World sipping brandy, yet comes with no pretense that it’s above being mixed into your favorite cocktails" says Coppola.

Source & Photo: Francis Ford Coppola Brandy

AMERICAN AND SOUTH AFRICAN BRANDIES BLENDED TOGETHER BY COPPER & KINGS

Copper & Kings American Brandy Co. has launched Geogr&phy Bi-Continental Brandewijn

Copper & Kings American Brandy Co. has launched Geogr&phy Bi-Continental Brandewijn ($50), a new limited release. The 54%-abv offering is a blend of copper pot-distilled American and South African brandies (51%/49% respectively) aged an extra two years in ex-Bourbon barrels.

The spirit is bottled without flavor additives or chill-filtering. Geogr&phy Bi-Continental Brandewijn is now available at the Copper & Kings distillery in Louisville, Kentucky and in select retail locations throughout the company’s distribution footprint.

Last January 2018, Constellation Brands took a minority share in Copper & Kings.

Source: The Spirits Business

PUFF DADDY NEW BRANDY VS: CIROC VS

CIROC BRANDY VS MADE IN THE COGNAC REGION, BUT THIS NOT A COGNAC

CIROC, the vodka made famous by the rapper Puff Daddy or Diddy, is launching a CIROC Brandy VS to answer its consumers' interest for brown spirits. Essentially, CIROC VODKA is made from local Cognac's region Mauzac Blanc and Ugni Blanc grapes. One of the earlier grape-based vodka

CIROC has often been accused of making a grappa or a brandy more than a traditional vodka.
Now it is clear with this version of CIROC BRANDY VS, it is a Brandy. Let's hope people get more into knowing what they drink than follow the trend - wishful thinking!

I have often heard people telling me that either they preferred clear spirits because they were 'clear' and therefore being clear did not give them headaches, or I have heard people prefer brown spirits because they ARE SOOO SMOOOTH!!! CIROC has both.
I am guessing soon we should see a Cognac from 50 cents!

Source: Sud Ouest

MORE ARMENIAN BRANDY IS BEING PRODUCED

 

Ararat 5 Years Old Armenian Brandy

Armenia is increasing their production of brandies according to the Armenian-French news magazine, Armenews, with 80% increased production.
Bid brand of brandies such as Ararat (Pernod Ricard) or Noy are looking like they are expanding sales overseas.
Looks like things are changing!

Source: Armenews

BRANDY RESURRECTION IN THE USA FUELED BY HUGE PUSH FROM E&J GALLO

[c
Argonaut Brandy is new, by E&J Gallo


[ENG] E&J Gallo, a massive and trend-making machine company in the wine & spirits industry is making news for its recent stake into the super premiun and craft brandy category in the USA. First, E&J Gallo released late July 2017 its long awaited Brandy Argonaut which is inspired by the brandy movement prior to prohibition.
Then, they acquired Brandy Germain-Robin mid-August. Clearly something huge is going to happen now!


Argonaut Brandy, 3 different styles, produced by E&J Gallo

[FR] Ca bouge dans la categorie 'Brandy' aux USA, j'ai meme envie de dire que ca bouge beaucoup.
Fin juillet 2017, E&J Gallo lance Brandy Argonaut, un brandy craft a la mode americaine, plutot Californienne devrais-je dire.
Et mi-aout 2017, E&J Gallo, encore, prend acquisition de la maison prestigieuse Brandy Germain-Robin.
Mais qu'est-ce qui se passe?

Sources: Gallo, Argonaut Brandy, Tasting Panel Magazine

CALVADOS IS GROWING SALES IN 100 COUNTRIES

Calvados, Cider and Pommeau

Calvados is suffering counterfeiting as well now with a 7% growth/year. Fake or want-to-be brands are copying or just simply alluding to Calvados to gain consumer attention but this is not fair and fraud really.

Since the 1990 Calvados has enjoyed growth thanks to export in about 100 countries. It might not be the mainstrean spirit but the little protected appellation in Normandy is getting attention all across the world.
No wonder, an original Calvados is delicious and unequalled!

Source: RVI

OLD SCHOOL DISTILLING IN FRANCE

Distilling Plum brandy in France using an old school trailer potstill for home made use.
'Fait Maison'!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCx4IHx2ZqM&w=560&h=315]

Source: Youtube.com

AMERICAN BRANDY REVIVAL

American Brandy Osocalis

From Shanken News

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

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American Brandy Is Enjoying A Renaissance

Spurred by the craft movement, domestic brandies are starting to catch fire in the marketplace. Brandy’s rise is an extension of the surge in other brown spirits, and part of an ever-broadening repertoire of drinks being explored by today’s adventurous consumers.

The big four American brandies—E.&J., Christian Brothers, Paul Masson and Korbel—still account for 93% of the category, according to Impact Databank. But the dynamism surrounding craft brandies has the industry taking notice. Brian Bowden, senior vice president and general merchandise manager for spirits, beer, tobacco and beverages at BevMo, expects to add more artisanal brandies this year. “We’ve seen an increase in all our American brandies, from everyday labels like E.&J., Korbel and Christian Brothers to more artisanal brands like St. George and Clear Creek’s fruit brandies,” Bowden says.

American brandy has retained a solid consumer base for decades. Sales rose steadily through the 1990s and 2000s, reaching 7.23 million cases by 2010, according to Impact Databank. Last year, category volume grew an estimated 5.5% to 7.8 million cases. Category leader E.&J. rose 7.5% to 3.9 million cases last year, driven by its Peach and Apple extensions. Meanwhile, Constellation’s Paul Masson surpassed 2 million cases in 2016 on double-digit growth. Korbel, marketed by Brown-Forman, sells about 290,000 cases annually, while Heaven Hill's Christian Brothers is at roughly 1.1 million cases.

Todd Kennedy, brand director for Korbel, says that even a hefty retail price increase—from $13 to roughly $18 a 1.75-liter bottle—only temporarily destabilized the Korbel brand. “We were initially delisted by some major retailers,” Kennedy says, noting that the increase was necessary due to rising grape and production costs. “But they came back to us after four or five months.”

While American brandy’s core demographic is the baby boomer and older market, millennials are driving growth. “Brandy has shifted to younger consumers,” Bowden notes. “They’re not necessarily trading over to brandy, they’re just adding it into their cocktail choices.”

Christopher Brian, bartender at New Orleans restaurant Coquette, notes the emergence of a middle tier for brandy. “For too long, the options were either Cognac, which is upwards of $40 or $50, or the cheap stuff for $8 or $9,” he says. “There was a dearth of well-made brandies that could be put into cocktails. Now the mid-tier range—$20 to $40—is emerging.” He says offerings from regional producers—most notably Louisville, Kentucky–based Copper & Kings, whose brandies are aged in Bourbon barrels—are resonating with his customers.

When Ansley Coale began making Germain-Robin brandy in the early 1980s, the craft brand garnered praise from critics, but didn’t gain widespread consumer acceptance. That situation may be finally changing. “After 30 years in the desert, suddenly everyone is paying attention to American brandies,” says Coale, cofounder of Germain-Robin and president of Ukiah, California–based Craft Distillers. Copper & Kings founder Joe Heron agrees. “Much more adventurous consumers have been the driver,” he says, noting that they’re typically younger than traditional brandy drinkers.

Todd Randall, vice president of St. Louis-based Randall’s Wines and Spirits, says consumers who buy American craft brandies are deliberately searching for them. “Certain customers come in looking for brands like Osocalis, Leopold Bros. and Copper & Kings,” Randall says. “They’re expensive—around the same price as a high-end Scotch or Bourbon.”

Source: Shanken News Daily

BRANDY IS COMING BACK SAYS THE NEW YORK TIMES

Fun Brandy not from main stream

"Brandy has become a quiet giant of the liquor industry. More than 13 million cases were sold domestically in 2016, outpacing gin, Scotch and Irish whiskey, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. And most of that — eight million cases — was American brandy", says The New York Times.

Craft Whiskey and craft beer consumers are increasingly looking up for the next best thing and brandy seems to be pointed at the horizon.

There are the 'American-cognac like' brandy maker such as Germain-Robin Brandy  and Osocalis Brandy.

And then, there are the modern brandy distilleries such as Copper & Kings in the middle of Whiskey country, Louisville Kentucky, but also Charbay in wine country of northern California.

Even "Christian Brothers, owned by Heaven Hill Distilleries, recently revamped its packaging, while this week Gallo, which owns E&J, already the best-selling brandy in the country, announced a new, premium brandy line called Argonaut, along with the reactivation of 20 traditional Cognac stills", says The New York Times.

This is good luck for Monteru Brandy which is offering copper pot still brandy form estate vineyards, and other cask experimental brandy selections.

Sources: New York Times, Osocalis Brandy, Copper & Kings Brandy, Germain Robin Brandy, Charbay

INNOVATIVE HAND MADE BRANDY IN ISRAEL

The Pelter family has long been in the tradition of distilling with an uncle traveling in a Ford T going from East to West of the USA to offer distilling service with a home made pot still in 1920 with the start of prohibition.

They distill using a used old cognac pot still they had sourced in France. It is small and therefore can only produce small batch.

They did not follow any one and Pelter is producing spirits from Majhoul dates which was the genesis of this distilling, then single grape brandy of merlot, gin, apple brandy, and soon whisky.

Pelter Distillery makes Single Grape Brandy of Merlot in Israel

They use the resources and grapes from their estate which is very reputable in Israel.

Source: Pelter Winery and Distillery

PAROW LAUNCHES HIS FIRST BRANDY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Jack Parow, a famous rapper from South Africa is launching his own brandy. He says it is his favorite drink and he is proud to own it. He worked behind the scene to release it this month to the public.

Jack Parow First Released Brandy in South Africa

Parow’s 3-year old Pot Still Brandy will be first available at selected bars and restaurants.

Source: Channel 24

POMACE BRANDY MADE BY CRAFT WINERIES

Not too many wineries are piggybacking off the craft spirit movement using their grapes to make brandy such as the long-time pioneer, Charbay Winery & Distillery did over 30 years ago, way before craft spirits were trendy.

TastingTable.com gives an account of Brooklyn's Red Hook Winery which is using the pressed grape skins left from making its wines (the pomace) to create barrel-aged grappa. The barrel aging and the fact that it is made in small pot stills results in a heavier texture and more complex flavor than most grappas.

Red Hook Winery Still in Brooklyn, NY, USA

It is too bad that they are still calling it Grappa. That should be left to the Italians!

In Europe the category name is 'Marc'. I think they should say 'Marc of Chardonnay', and let the Grappas be for Italians' Marc.

Pomace Brandy, or Marc, Grappa if it is made in Italy in my book!

Red Hook Winery, Grappa, Pomace Brandy, Brooklyn, NY, USA

"Working out of a 19th-century shipping warehouse at the end of a pier in Brooklyn, Colin Alevras is busy tending to barrels of Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc at Red Hook Winery. 

Before greeting a midweek customer at the tasting counter, Alevras, the shop foreman, stops to check another barrel—but this one isn't filled with wine. It's filled with grappa that's been aging at the winery since 2012 ... This small-batch, Brooklyn-based grappa will challenge everything you know about the storied spirit."

Source:  TastingTable.com

THE AUSTRALIAN COGNAC SAYS THE ARTICLE ...: OCHRE!

The Australian Cognac says Melbourne Food & Wine Festival in its recent article introducing Ochre Brandy.

Ochre Brandy, Aged Grape Spirits

Further, Ochre Brandy website ochrespirit.com.au says: "...Ochre is a handcrafted Cognac-style spirit..."

Sorry but Cognac is brandy but not all brandies are cognac. To be called 'cognac' a brandy requires a huge list of characteristics, too many to summarize in a short blog. But essentially, this brandy need to be made in the cognac region which is in the South West of France, from grape harvested in the same region, double distilled in small copper pot stills, and aged in French oak casks.

As I said this is only a summary, learn more from cognac.fr for the different details which makes cognac such a unique and the finest brown spirits.

I am very intrigued by this chardonnay brandy as Ochre is just launching its first batch. The article says:

"This rare 1st vintage spirit is double distilled in an Alembic still on the Mornington Peninsula from Chardonnay grapes. The resulting deep golden colour of the spirit reflects the rich red soil that is prevalent in the Red Hill wine growing region."

Something is wrong here ... Distilling is extracting the vapor of alcohol first, and vapors are always clear like water, at least if distilling correctly the heart of the distillation. Hence, the 'deep golden color' does not come from the chardonnay but from the aging in wood barrels.

See more Single Grape distillations from Monteru Single Grape Brandy.

Clearly Ochre seems like a fine brandy which is very much inspired by cognac. Germain Robin Brandy in the USA for instance as successfully with time established a good reputation for a super premium brandy so it is possible that Ochre becomes the brandy from the Southern Hemisphere.

What is a Fine? Why do You Read "Fine Cognac" on old labels?

Cognac Paradis Comandon Labels Fine VS and VSOP

Some cultures and countries have a real tradition in making brandy of wines like Spain or Armenia. They both have a set of specific traditions in aging and producing but at the end they produce a much sweeter brandy than say French brandy.

French brandies (i.e. generic of wines) appear in a wide variety of quality levels with some being 'the run of the mill' and other being absolutely outstanding.

So what is a 'fine'? [pronouced feenne in this case].

A fine is a brandy made of distilled grape wines. Same thing as a grape brandy but it specifically separate from the other fruits' brandies.

So when you read a cognac label that says 'fine cognac' or 'vieille fine cognac' it is referring to the term of 'fine' as of distilled grape based brandy. This term is only used by very old cognac brand since this was a statement mostly employed prior to the 1950s when the cognac appellation was not well protected by international treaties.

Cognac Paradis Comandon Acquit Regional Jaune D'Or

Another term you can read on old labels is "acquit regional jaune d'or". This is a certificate issued y the local tax office that warrants the cognac has been produced and distilled in Cognac. It is a necessary for any cognac to be transported. It provides a control on the exchange of cognacs.  Cognac shipments require a certificate of "acquit regional jaune d'or" and it is a separate documents used by the customs to verify the quantities of cognacs exported. Simplified, one has to produce the cognac, then the cognac gets this certificate, and after this the cognac can leave the distilery or cellar to be transported or sold to someone else. Every cognac house has to manage these certificates but this mention does not appear on labels as this is 'old school'. Now, consumers are not as worried as before about fake cognac.  People are more aware now that cognac is only coming from France than they were 50 years ago. The Acquit regional jaune d'or was created in 1929 and it was used in Cognac as part of the cognac regional effort to protect its regional characteristics.