Fruit of the Vine: A Whiskey Geek’s First Venture into Quality American Brandy

Considering the sheer amount of whiskey writing I’ve produced for Paste in the last few years, and the supplementary pieces that have increasingly revolved around spirits such as rum or gin, it might be surprising for me to admit that brandy has been an almost entirely blank page in my spirits journey. I have a bottle or two of brandy in my home, sure. There are a few cocktails I know that call for it in small portions, and I might occasionally use it while cooking some kind of French cuisine. But considering the breadth of spirits I regularly consume, the almost total omission of brandy has long been something I’ve thought I should rectify.

Thing is, though … I’ve never been terribly fond of brandy in the past. It always struck me as something I was curious to sample, but rarely excited my palate or ignited my interest when I sampled some, at least in comparison with other aged spirits such as whiskey or rum. And I’m hardly alone there—American consumers often seem to not now quite what to make of brandy, a spirit with distinctly “European” connotations, even though it’s been produced in the U.S. for centuries. This is especially true of American whiskey (re: Bourbon) aficionados, many of whom barely seem to venture outside their comfort zones to include rye whiskey or scotch, let alone aged rums or brandy. What I’ve come to realize, however, is this: I simply hadn’t had the right brandies yet.

Brandy, I am coming to realize, is just as varied and rewarding a category as the other major spirits that receive aging in oak barrels. Like whiskey or rum, brandy can derive complexity and variation through both the makeup of its distillate (i.e., different varieties or blends of grapes) and distillation techniques/aging processes. But because brandy tends to still be so poorly understood by the average American consumer, let’s start with a brief definition before I taste a few California brandies that pleasantly upended my expectations.

A Basic Brandy Definition

You likely understand that “brandy” refers to a fermented grape product that has then been distilled into a spirit/liquor, but that’s where we must begin. The term “brandy” is a catch-all, including every grape (or fruit) product that is fermented and then distilled and aged. The word “brandy” therefore also works if we’re talking about apple brandy, peach brandy, etc.—those may imply spirits fermented and distilled specifically from those fruit juices, or they may be the more common grape brandy with additional fruit essences added. Suffice to say, the word “brandy” is like the word “whiskey,” in the sense that it can mean many different things.

You’ve also likely heard the terms “cognac” and “armagnac.” These are both specific, famous styles of French brandy that have more detailed definitions and quality standards. Cognac may only be produced in the Charente and Charente-Maritime regions, and is typically made with a single white grape varietal, Ugni blanc. It’s distilled in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in French oak barrels from Limousin or Tronçais, but is often aged far longer. Armagnac, by comparison, is produced in the Armagnac region of Gascony, and is distilled from a wider range of grape varietals that include Baco 22A, Colombard, Folle blanche and Ugni blanc. Notably, it is traditionally produced in column stills rather than pot stills, which obviously makes for a significantly different spirit overall.

Americans tend to think of brandy and cognac possessing a certain European sophistication.

American brandy, meanwhile, enjoys a rather looser set of definitions and restrictions than those placed on a tightly defined product such as bourbon. Most of it is just referred to as “brandy” rather than any regionally specific title, although the law does require that products including any other fruit much by labeled “with a clarifying description” such as “fruit brandy,” “pomace brandy,” etc. There is also no minimum age requirement, except for the fact that brandy aged in oak for less than two years must be labeled as “immature,” which is unsurprisingly an undesirable label. In this way, brandy aged in oak for more than two years in the U.S. is akin to the “straight” designation for bourbon, which likewise implies at least two years of aging.

Perhaps most important, though, especially to California brandies (where the most U.S. brandy is made), is the fact that U.S. brandy can be made with any and all grape varietals, taking advantage of the wide selection of popular wine groups grown up and down the length of the state. This results in a variety of brandies with flavors that are significantly different from what one can expect in European brandies.

Tasting: Argonaut and Germain-Robin California Brandies

This particular exploration of California brandy was kicked off by a press release I received—a typical PR release of the sort that we drink writers receive dozens of every day, except for the fact that it was in reference to a spirit I genuinely wanted to explore in more depth. Specifically, this press email was offering samples from two California brandy companies both owned by wine industry kingpins E&J Gallo. The company’s own namesake brandy is one of the first that you’re likely to stumble across on a supermarket shelf, but the two companies highlighted in this article focus on producing a much more premium and intricate product, and exclusively distill and age brandies. They are Argonaut Distilling Co. and Germain-Robin, and both proved to produce brandies that enticed me like none of the examples I’d ever tasted before.