Brandy varied views

So if you follow me on IG (Instagram) then you know that I recently had a conversation with my friend, The Scotch Girl on IGTV talking about a specific spirit that technically falls into the brandy category. I personally think it should be its own category and have heard/read it described as "if whiskey and brandy had a baby". Now I know that makes a lot of people in both camps skeptical and I was too, but I converted. I understand where they are going and how they are viewing this product. I will not go into everything we said, you can go view it on my IGTV or YouTube for yourself. What I will say is that Bhakta has caught me and I bought a bottle from each barrel release. The notes are cardamom, apricots, and smoke sea saltish. It is just a tinge at the end but it is not the overpowering notes or mouth feel I normally get from a brandy and every time it gives me something new and more complex than the last. I don't know how it happens or what their secret is but it is definitely one I will recommend adding to your cabinet (and no I don't get paid for saying any of this). Now in this post, I am doing something a bit different in that I asked my husband (@whiskeyvin on IG) to write about brandy. I wanted to get his perspective and so here we are. Warning - he gets a bit technical. Per the usual tasting notes are at the end. It is lengthy because turns out, we have quite the collection. Vince's thoughts: My first memories of brandy go back to my early childhood – my father would come home from work and have a little nip – usually Chivas Regal on the rocks, but occasionally something in a big round glass he called Cognac. He would give me a taste (I was probably 5 years old) and it was awful. When I was a little older, he took a solo vacation to Brazil to see my sister and her family in Sao Paolo. One of his prized souvenirs was a little brandy snifter with “Varig” (at one time the leading Brazilian airline) printed on the side. This was the 80s, so he was impressed that he got an actual glass snifter flying coach. I kind of forgot about brandy until I went to business school at Indiana University. As part of our MBA “grooming” a retired professor offered wine tasting classes from his home in Bloomington. Unfortunately, all of his slots filled up, but he also offered a class on Cognac and cigars. That’s when my real interest in brandy – Cognac specifically – began. That’s where I learned that Cognac and Armagnac are part of a larger family of spirits called brandy. And brandy is made from distilling wine. The old prof told us of a legend that the Vikings came raiding into France they added French wine to their plunder. To save storage space and increase its longevity for the voyage home they decided to distill it with the intent of re-hydrating it in Scandinavia (instead of frozen concentrated orange juice they invented concentrated wine!) They tasted the distilled spirit and decided to forgo the water. This tale is almost certainly apocryphal. So what are Cognac, Armagnac, and brandy? The cliched answer is that all Cognacs and Armagnacs are brandies, but not all brandies are Cognac or Armagnac. Brandy is the name for a family of spirits made by distilling wine. Brandy is to wine as whisky is to beer. Go make some wine and cook the alcohol off, save it, age it in a wooden barrel for a while and you get brandy. Now if you make that brandy in a region of France called Nouvelle-Aquitaine and you use specific grapes including ugni-blanc, use a pot-still, adhere to specific standards, you can call that brandy Cognac. If you make your brandy in a specific region of Gascony (can you guess the name of the region?) and you use Colombard grapes (and a few others), use a column-still, and adhere to other specific processes, you can call your brandy Armagnac. Producing fine brandies is more complex than just boiling wine, though. Once you’ve got your distillate, you need to apply barrel aging and blending processes strongly akin to the whisky maker's art. French brandy makers use a variety of cask types and constantly monitor them until they reach maturity. They will often freeze the aging process by transferring the spirit into large glass demi-johns which are sealed to protect the spirit. These spirits can wait for 50 to 100 years or more before being added to a specific brandy blend. The blends are complex and exact – Hardy Noces D’Or Cognac is made from 40 different spirits (or varietals) the youngest of which is 50 years. Remy Martin XO blends up to 400 varietals to achieve their signature Cognac. Cognac is probably the most famous type of brandy. You may notice letter designations after the names of your various Cognacs including VS, VSOP, XO, etc. These denote the age of the youngest varietal in the blend. These designations and their definitions are: • VS – Very Special, minimum age 2 years • VSOP – Very Special Old Pale, minimum age 4 years • XO – Extra Old, minimum age 6 years • Napoleon, Extra, Hors d’Age – fancy terms for older than XO. Now on to some tasting notes: Vince's notes - Copper and Kings Craftwerk Nose: pears, apples, astringency, dried berries, and apricots Taste: Creamy mouthfeel, cherries, not too sweet with a long finish Carlos I (tall bottle) Nose: Mossy, caramel, currants, cherries Taste: Caramel, vanilla, leather, cloves Carlos I (short bottle) Nose: Bright, buttery, strawberry jam and brown butter Taste: Same as tall bottle Gran Duque D'Alba Nose: Oaky, stone fruits, barrel char, spices Taste: spicy, cherries, creamy mouthfeel, apricots Chateau du Busca Armagnac Nose: floral, perfume, earthy Taste: Spicy, floral, slightly sweet, plums Scotch Malt Whiskey Society A5.3 Armagnac Nose: grapes, cherry, apple Taste: cherry syrup, thick consistency, bitter finish, green leafy Frapin Cigar Perfect Cognac Nose: bright, fruity, apples, yuzu, cinnamon, sweetness, sour cherries Taste: tangy start, caramel finish Remy Martin XO Cognac Nose: cherries, oak, vanilla & cream, subtle hints of tobacco Taste: vanilla, creamy feel, pears, moss Hardy Noces d'Or Nose: bright, flowers and fruit, grapes, earthy and mossy Taste: vanilla caramel, pecans, butter, flowery Bhakta 50 Barrel 1 Nose: Tobacco, cherries and stone fruits, golden raisins and currants Taste: Smokey, tobacco, cherry, and currants, earthy/mossy My notes- Copper and Kings Craftwerk (this one is a collaboration between Copper & Kings and Against the Grain Brewery) finished in Scottish ale barrels- Nose - mostly ethanol (took a long time for this to dissipate), a hint of apple, wood, sweet, think the smell of wet hickory, fresh cream, golden raisins. Taste - cough syrup mouthfeel, very thick, prickle on the tip of the tongue, sweet like a warm toffee, burn in the back of the throat. Carlos I (tall bottle) - Nose - like a funked cork except this bottle has no cork, fresh-cut bark, wood soaked in citrus juice Taste - soft wooded peaches, pecans, creamy mouthfeel, marmalade (American style/sweeter), coats the mouth with a tinge of a tingle and a slight nudge of smoke. Carlos I (short bottle) - Nose - sweet honey, apricot pudding, invokes a honey field alive with flowers, bees buzzing, and a warm summer breeze Taste - yummy, warm, supple, like smooth amber honey or fresh nectar, seductive as it slides to the back, just a hint of baking spice and warmth. Gran Duque D'Alba Oro - Nose - nail polish, tannery, very masculine, fresh gun oil, leather, wood polish, orange zest, dried orange rind. This nosing was one that really transported me into an old leather shop with all the smells and aromas. Taste - spicy-sweet, rich, oily coating, tobacco and leather, tannins. It was a very masculine brandy that pulls you into the 18th-century study where it is cigars, brandies, and leather with old books. I did a 2nd tasting and came away with Canadian maple candy. Chateau Du Busca Armagnac - Nose - citrus, dried orange or mandarins, tartness on the nose, invokes images of old Hollywood, fruity (stone fruits) Taste - spicy, fruity, luscious on the tongue, bit of bite, lingers in the bitter parts of the mouth like cough syrup Scotch Malt Whiskey Society A5.3 Armagnac - Nose - polish, bright cherry, dried mandarins (think Trader Joe's) and wood Taste - sweet, spicy (huge prickle on tongue and lips), very tangy, and full of citrus spice. Side Note: the nose and taste on this one fell like polar opposites Frapin Cigar Perfect - Nose - apples, very bright, fresh, homemade applesauce, apple pie, red pears, almonds (think Disarrono), and a hint of tobacco Taste - prickle n the tongue, stewed pears with spice, leather on the tip of the tongue with a quick finish that leaves you craving a good cigar. Remy Martin XO - Nose - cologne, candied fruit, rose water, apricots, green pears, sweet oak Taste - tingle on the tip, fruity, juicy, oaky, almost peachy, white grape (like cotton candy grapes). It is a snuggler, you want this on a cold night in next to the fireplace and your favorite blanket. Hardy Cognac Noces D 'Or - Nose - subtle, leather, orange, smooth, apricot jam, wood, amber honey, sunshine Taste - smooth, nectar, thick honey, clover, lingering sweetness, first one where I taste the grape, stone fruit jam, leather in the back. Bhakta 50 Barrel 1 - (this will be my third time tasting and it is different each time) Nose - wood, apples, morning frost or dew, soil, cardamom, nutmeg, mossy Taste - spice, smoke, sea salt, leather, musty, aged wood, char, ocean breeze, baking spice