Maker Notes

Sam Brannan was tall, charismatic, and had a talent for evocative and powerful writing, as well as distilling fine brandy. In 1846, Sam took a voyage on the ship “Brooklyn” from New York to San Francisco with a printing press in tow. When he landed in San Francisco, he started the town’s first newspaper, The California Star, which debuted on January 9, 1847. 

In 1848, Sam bolted into the old San Francisco Plaza and was the first to announce the stupendous discovery, “Gold, Gold, Gold, from the American River!”. The whole city followed his lead in the search of gold and his newspaper, The California Star, became known as, “The Voice of the Gold Rush.”

The Calistoga Star brandies are a nod to not only Sam’s first newspaper in San Francisco, The California Star, but also his love for distilling brandy he called “Calistoga Cognac” that critics during the era called “a brandy equal to the finest brandies in France”.

Distillate: Barbera and Ugni Blanc grapes from the Central Valley

Aging: Cellared for a minimum of 10 years and maximum of 20 years in a combination of 40% Column aged in used Bourbon Barrels and 60% Alembic aged in French Oak

Color: Amber

Aroma: Candied citrus, vanilla, nutmeg and stewed cranberries

Palate: Lush mouthfeel with a smooth finish; notes of dried figs, toffee, espresso and charred citrus

Maker Notes

Sam Brannan was tall, charismatic, and had a talent for evocative and powerful writing, as well as distilling fine brandy. In 1846, Sam took a voyage on the ship “Brooklyn” from New York to San Francisco with a printing press in tow. When he landed in San Francisco, he started the town’s first newspaper, The California Star, which debuted on January 9, 1847. 

In 1848, Sam bolted into the old San Francisco Plaza and was the first to announce the stupendous discovery, “Gold, Gold, Gold, from the American River!”. The whole city followed his lead in the search of gold and his newspaper, The California Star, became known as, “The Voice of the Gold Rush.” 

The Calistoga Star brandies are a nod to not only Sam’s first newspaper in San Francisco, The California Star, but also his love for distilling brandy he called “Calistoga Cognac” that critics during the era called “a brandy equal to the finest brandies in France”.

Distillate: Chardonnay, French Colombard, Grenache, Muscat and Symphony grapes from the Central Valle

Aging: Cellared for a minimum of 7 years and up to 15 years in a combination of 60% Column aged in used Bourbon barrels and 40% Alembic aged in French Oak

Color: Amber

Aroma: Toasted oak, orange zest, clove, cinnamon

Palate: Rich palate with a warming sensation from the alcohol; notes of caramel, plum, walnut and oak

During the California Gold Rush, gold dust served as the preferred currency. A miner would open his purse of gold, offering merchants and barkeeps to take a pinch of dust as payment. Prosperous merchants were said to have ‘Fat Thumbs,’ thanks to a reputation for taking generous pinches of gold. In blending Argonaut Fat Thumb, our Master Distiller showed she too had a ‘Fat Thumb’ when pulling from our alembic brandy stocks. The resulting blend showcases the quality of some of our more scarce blending legs. Fat Thumb offers baked apple cobbler, overripe pear, toasted oak, coconut, vanilla, nutmeg and clove, red apple, overripe pear, traces of caramelized banana, rich, silky mouthfeel.

Tasting Note: Apple, Pear, Caramel, Oak

Torres 10 is made by the distillation of Parellada, Xarelo and Macabeo white wines followed by aging in American oak casks using the traditional solera system.

AWARDS
2015 - Double Gold, San Francisco World Spirits Competition

Bottle Size: 750ml

MTODO SOLERA
A unique spanish dynamic aging process in which brandies of different ages and personalities are
carefully blended together under the expert supervision of the master distiller.

AWARDS
2018 - Gold Medal, World Spirits Awards
Gold Medal, San Francsico World SpirtsCompetition
Best Brandy Solera, World Brandy Awards

Bottle Size: 750ml

The right choice for a great authentic taste. For Ccile Roudaut, St-Rmy VSOP is our keystone, our pillar. It has an amber, golden, clear appearance. When swirled in a glass, small tears cling to the sides. It is unctuous, and releases notes of fruit from the orchard: peach, pear, fig. And then it ends on a woody, subtle, spicy note. It's sweet, pleasant, feminine, with a nice finish. No trace of bitterness.

St-Rmy VSOP conveys the taste of small, freshly-picked red berries, while bringing out the sweet vanilla flavour of oak. It is a round, balanced spirit that is easy to drink. With its light and subtle nose, St-Rmy VSOP is excellent neat, on ice or with a simple mixer.

Bottle Size: 750ml

Tasting Notes

The brainchild of Jeff Bell (PDT) and Thomas Pastuszak (The NoMad), Bertoux is structured on the French classics, including the heavy use of the Colombard grape variety, with a distinctively American penchant for cocktails blended into the structure and flavor profile of the brandy. Created from 3yr-7yr old pot-distilled brandies that are aged in a combination of French and American Oak casks, the spirit is forward, primary, full flavored and well balanced all at once. If that doesn't fit the bill for a perfect all-purpose mixing spirit than we don't know what will.

Agnesi 1799 Brandy is an American brandy sourced and blended by the Coppola family from stocks of California brandy. It is aged for 5 years and brought down to 80 proof with Napa Valley water from the Coppola's family estate in Inglenook. The brandy is named for Maria Gaetana Agnesi, an Italian 18th century mathematician, philosopher, and theologian.

TASTING NOTES

"The nose offers a walk through a dewy, grassy meadow, with honey, sugar-coated grapes, and dried fruits. The palate shows more honey along with floral notes and a basket of fruits inducing plums, redcurrants, and lingonberries, as well as leather and dark chocolate. A flowery finish offers sweet agave syrup and oak."

Founded in 1982 by German-born Jrg Rupf, St. George Spirits is one of the oldest craft distilleries in the United States. The distillery, housed in an old World War II airplane hangar on a former naval base on the edge of San Francisco, is home to Lance Winters, mad scientist and St. George's master distiller. Winters, who is widely-known for experimenting with different types of spirits, has a laboratory dominated by a 10-liter test still in addition to the glass beakers and graduated cylinders that cover every inch of his counterspace. Next to the dusty chalkboards caked with equations for the conversion of sugar to alcohol and intricate diagrams of molecular structures are bottles of experimental whiskies, vodkas and even an aging balsamic vinegar (it's 14 years old already). Our objective with St. George Raspberry Brandy, explains Winters, was to take an olfactory snapshot to capture exactly what raspberries smell like at their peak of ripeness. We used the whole fruit in its entirety in a deliberate effort to maximize the most elemental and essential flavors and aromas. Once the raspberries have been harvested, they are distilled through copper pot stills without the use of sugar or any other artificial ingredients. The brandy has an extraordinary texture and flavor profile, with rich waves of soft fruit, raspberries, oak and cinnamon that are complemented by a mineral touch. The brandy was named one of the Top 75 Spirits of 2014 by F. Paul Pacult's Spirit Journal.

Five years old ARARAT Armenian brandy is a classic representative of the ARARAT range. For this blend, special brandy distillates are used, and they gave it a bright character and fullness of taste.

Color: Amber color with a noble golden sheen. It looks as if sunrays are stored inside of it.

Taste: Bright with caramel tones, toffee and fresh homemade pastry notes.

Flavor: Sweet peaches and plums complemented by hints of vanilla and cinnamon.

Jaime I is a work of art, inspired by modernist art, which pays tribute to the founder of Bodegas Torres:
Don Jaime Torres.

Made entirely from the Parellada grape variety, it boasts exceptionally long ageing using the traditional solera method, which gives the brandy a vintage character. Jaime I is made by carefully mixing very old brandies, older than those used in the reserve brandies.

Fine dark mahogany colour. It is complex, majestic and balanced. With notes highly suggestive of vanilla,
walnut, flowers, plum, cedar and sandalwood.

Asbach Uralt is a German brandy produced by the Asbach GmbH. It's history dates back to the late 19th century when Hugo Asbach founded the company in the town of Rdesheim am Rhein, at 24 years old. A Cologne native, Hugo gained knowledge for the industry from a local Export-Company for German Cognac.

A blend of superb exclusively copper pot-distilled brandy with real character and depth of flavor mingled in a unique, modern American style. Small batch distillation of superior, highly aromatic wine selected for exceptional quality.

Non-Chill Filtered For An Authentic, Uncorrupted Natural Flavor and natural color. Some Cloudiness, faint suspension or light sediment may be apparent at colder temperatures. Our ambition is to retain the integrity of the distillate with minimal intervention, with our signature mouth-feel and definitive aroma. Matured in Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey and medium-char American white oak barrels for balance, complexity and a polished, velvety finish. The approximate blend is 90% Kentucky Bourbon Barrels & 10% New American Oak.

Tasting notes

Appearance: golden, caramelized oats, darkening harvest sun.

Aroma: caramel, honey, cherry wood, honeysuckle with a hint of melon and subtle floral bouquet.

Taste: luscious, ever so slightly oily & viscous. Honey, toasted oak, tobacco, dried stone fruit, feisty spice on the mid-palate.

Singani is an indigenous Bolivian spirit that has been produced since 1530, and distributed exclusively inside Bolivia. Fast forward to 2008, Steven Soderbergh attended a kickoff party in Madrid for the 2008 biopic Che. The casting director of the film gave him a taste of Singani, an aromatic, clear grape-based Bolivian spirit. The rest was history. Singani uses only muscat grapes of Alexandria which must be planted at a minimum of 5250 feet. Because Singani is not a recognized spirit category in most of the world, it is described as a brandy, but is better classified as an eau-de-vie. Singani has been described as being much like pisco, and came about when the Spanish brought their grapes and their distilling methods over to Latin America. Five hundred years later, it's the national drink of Bolivia with a Domain of Origen, and yet still mostly unknown outside the country. In 2010, Steven Soderbergh created his own line, Singani 63, to be distributed everywhere outside of Bolivia. In November of 2014, he co-petitioned (with the Bolivian government) to the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau to recognize Singani as its own unique category, not unlike Pisco and Cachaa. The number 63 is a reference to Soderbergh's birth year, and this Singani is the first ever to be available in the United States and for that you can thank the director, Steven Soderbergh and his blood, sweat, and tears (and money).

Armenian brandy ARARAT "Akhtamar", named after the beautiful legend about the love of Princess Tamar for a brave young man who conquered the harsh waters of Lake Van every night for her sake, today itself gives rise to legends. We have created an exceptional blend of more than fifteen distillates, providing this 10-year-old brandy with a full, soft, silky and pleasantly tart taste with a long-lasting aftertaste.

Color: Warm amber shades shimmer with light copper highlights.

Taste: Voluminous and sweet, it combines strong notes of prunes and cinnamon.

Flavor: Beeswax, walnut and oak with hints of prunes and vanilla.

Perfect for sipping with friends, this fine brandy is crafter with premium peach distillate.

The “Original Applejack”, Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy – Bottled in Bond is made the same today as it was over 200 years ago. This product is 100% apple brandy, aged for a minimum of 4 years in charred oak barrels, then bottled at 100 proof.  With its harmonious marriage of baked apple flavors and spiced wood notes, Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy Bottled in Bond exhibits the traditional, authentic expression of apple brandy.

Great for sipping and demanded by the best bartenders worldwide, for use in both classic and modern cocktails. 

The "Grande Amber" designation signifies the remarkable aging process that this VSOP (Very Superior Old Pale) brandy undergoes. Only the finest and most exceptional aged eaux-de-vie are meticulously selected and blended to create a harmonious and complex flavor profile.

Paul Masson Grande Amber VSOP Brandy boasts a captivating golden hue that hints at the depth and richness held within. With each sip, one can experience the meticulously crafted layers of flavors and aromas that have developed over years of patient aging in oak barrels.

The nose is greeted with a bouquet of warm, inviting aromas. Notes of ripe fruits, including apricots and plums, mingle with hints of vanilla, caramel, and subtle oak. This intricate scent profile sets the stage for a truly indulgent tasting experience.

On the palate, the Grande Amber VSOP Brandy delivers a symphony of flavors that dance across the tongue. Rich and velvety, it unveils a delightful medley of dried fruits, such as raisins and figs, intertwined with gentle spices and a touch of honey. The aging process contributes to a smooth and rounded mouthfeel, enhancing the overall drinking experience.

The finish is long and satisfying, leaving a lingering warmth and a subtle reminder of the brandy's exquisite craftsmanship. Whether enjoyed neat, on the rocks, or as the foundation for a well-crafted cocktail, Paul Masson Grande Amber VSOP Brandy is an embodiment of sophistication and refinement.

With its exceptional quality and dedication to time-honored traditions, Paul Masson Grande Amber VSOP Brandy has earned its place among the finest brandies in the world. It is a testament to the brand's unwavering commitment to producing spirits of unparalleled excellence.

You gotta respect an original. VS is the flavor that kicked it all off for E&J back in 1975 and America's most popular brandy. Whether you are sipping or mixing, E&J VS brandy does the trick with a smooth, sweet flavor and hints of brown spice and vanilla. Soft and light-bodied and finishing crisp, it's Cali brandy at its best and it wins the gold medals and best of show awards to prove it, year after year.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Amber color Bouquets of fruit particularly banana and apricot.

Palate: Palate is blended with apple liqueur, giving it a sweet, crisp flavor with just a hint of vanilla and caramel.

Finish: Finish is smooth.

Distillery Information

E & J Gallo Winery is a winery and distributor headquartered in Modesto, California. It was founded in 1933 by Ernest Gallo and Julio Gallo, and is the largest exporter of California wines.