TDG: Spanish Brandy

[Fat Guy]

Our revered founder has graced us with a tasting of Spanish brandies. Please enjoy.

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[Schielke]

Great roundup Jason! I will be sure to check some of those out.

Ben

[Dave the Cook]

Nice article, Jason.

If you are comfortable and you have the time, could you be more specific in comparing these brandies to a few French counterparts?

[=Mark]

Considering that the visual impact of the packaging was such a large component of the article I was surprised at the lack of photos of the respective bottles.

[Bux]

Aesthetics of packaging aren't something we cared about all that much when making our selections, but it's crazy for a for-profit corporation to go out and sell brandy in some of these bottles. With the exception of two of the Solera Gran Reservas we looked at, the packaging pretty much all universally stunk. The bottles look stodgy, are obviously produced for the less discriminating customer, and for lack of a better description they look cheap. It takes about two seconds looking at the packaging to understand why the French have the Spanish beat in this department. Maybe the Spanish producers should hire some French or Italian designers to handle this end of the business.

Aesthetics are almost as subjective as taste. In fact they are little more than a commonly held standard of taste and as such they vary considerably from culture to culture and from subculture to subculture. There have been some very significant 20th century Spanish artists and modern architects, but I suspect a majority were from the north, or more likely, Catalonia--Barcelona is a hotbed of design, although Guadi and his contemporaries marched to a different drummer. The popular Spanish aesthetic of the 20th century has largely been untouched by the Bauhaus, Danish modern or Italian design of the late 20th century. I have good evidence it's changing, but I'm still pleasantly surprised to walk into a restaurant in Spain and find it's not designed by the same guys who did the sets for El Cid.

[Fat Guy]

Considering that the visual impact of the packaging was such a large component of the article I was surprised at the lack of photos of the respective bottles.

He consumed all the brandy so there was nothing left for Ellen to photograph!

[guajolote]

A good, cheap Reserva brandy is Osborne Magno Solera Reserva, only $16. The flavor profile is similar to the Osborne Cristal.

[thelastsupper]

Do others have opinions on the Larios 1866 Gran Reserva? It is made in Málaga, not Cádiz or Jérez de la Frontera. I am uncertain if it is produced using the Solera system.

[Gerry Dawes]

Good article, Jason. Here are a few notes on your article and the subsequent posts. Although the simplest way to explain the solera system is to describe the process as having the oldest sherries or brandies on the bottom and the young ones on top, etc., in practice there are several rows of barrels in descending order of age.

Also, hardly of drop of the wine distilled into Brandies de Jerez Solera Gran Reserva comes from the sherry district. Except for the Oloroso and PX flavoring, the distillate comes from La Mancha, where the white Airén (Spain's Ugni Blanc)

Years ago, I used to think that Larios 1866, which I am sure is made by the solera process, was one of the greatest brandies of Spain. Now, I do not. I don't know if it has slipped in quality or that I just began paying a lot more attention to other options. Besides the Brandies de Jerez, there are a number of very good cognac-style brandies from Cataluña and even some good brandies emerging from the grape source, La Mancha. In Tomelloso, Bodegas Centro-Españolas, producers of very good and reazonably priced Allozo La Mancha wines, has a good brandy, whose origin was in some old solera stocks held by a family in Casajuanas. Tomelloso, but the way, has a co-operative whose members harvest more grapes each year than the entire Ribera del Duero.

Osborne Magno is a real sleeper brandy. It is excellent for the price.

[Jason Perlow]

Good article, Jason. Here are a few notes on your article and the subsequent posts.  Although the simplest way to explain the solera system is to describe the process as having the oldest sherries or brandies on the bottom and the young ones on top, etc., in practice there are several rows of barrels in descending order of age. 

Also, hardly of drop of the wine distilled into Brandies de Jerez Solera Gran Reserva comes from the sherry district.  Except for the Oloroso and PX flavoring, the distillate comes from La Mancha, where the white Airén (Spain's Ugni Blanc)

Years ago, I used to think that Larios 1866, which I am sure is made by the solera process, was one of the greatest brandies of Spain.  Now, I do not.  I don't know if it has slipped in quality or that I just began paying a lot more attention to other options.  Besides the Brandies de Jerez, there are a number of very good cognac-style brandies from Cataluña and even some good brandies emerging from the grape source, La Mancha.  In Tomelloso, Bodegas Centro-Españolas, producers of very good and reazonably priced Allozo La Mancha wines, has a good brandy, whose origin was in some old solera stocks held by a family in Casajuanas.  Tomelloso, but the way, has a co-operative whose members harvest more grapes each year than the entire Ribera del Duero.

Osborne Magno is a real sleeper brandy.  It is excellent for the price.

I've heard about some of these other non-Jerez brandies, but unfortunately, you can't find them in the US. Even in Newark's heavily Spanish Ironbound section, you can't find them.

[Alberto]

Hi JP,

what can you tell us about Romate's Uno En Mil single-cask bottling? It worth the money?

Thanks,

Alberto

Edited August 26, 2003 by Alberto (log)

[Jason Perlow]

Hi JP,

what can you tell us about Romate's Uno En Mil single-cask bottling? It worth the money?

Thanks,

Alberto

Never tried it. You got a URL of where it can be found?

[Alberto]

The page in Sanchez Romate's website is www.romate.com/e_unoenmil.asp, here's how it looks like:

Seems a decided departure from tradtional Brandy de Jerez design & packaging style.

Edited August 26, 2003 by Alberto (log)

[pierreverte]

here is an extremely reliable on-line source for spanish brandies and other alcohols...they ship to the usa will respond to e-mails in english:

http://www.spiritscorner.com

[Jason Perlow]

The Uno En Mil appears NOT to be a solera-aged brandy though, since its single cask. I assume its statically aged, like Cognac and Armagnac?

[Alberto]

Yes it is, despite the "Solera Gran Reserva" title in main label.

Rear label specifies that it's taken from a statically-aged single cask; no age or year of distillation are stated, just number of cask (out of 1000) and number of bottle (out of +/- 700 bottles, which means 400 l ca. puncheons or 500 l ca. butts, made of american oak).

"Solera Gran Reserva" must actually be a mere legal specification, i.e. it's over 3 y.o.

Slainthe,

Alberto

[Mickeman]

Intresting articel!

I too would like to se a comparison to Cognac since I have som experience with Cognac.

For instance which brands and bottlings of Spanish brandy would be "equal in quality" to the finer Cognac brands XO bottlings?

[Jason Perlow]

All the Solera Grand Reserva (SGV) bottlings that I list in that article are comparable to XO cognacs. However each of them have different flavor characteristics -- the four that are most cognac-like in taste are Lepanto, Carlos I, Conde de Osborne and Milenario. Cardenal Mendoza and Gran Ducque de Alba are on the sweeter side and are closer in flavor profile to a sweet sherry.

[Mickeman]

Gran Ducque de Alba is the only one in the article that I can purchase here in Sweden. The other bottlings I can purchase is:

Fundador

Soberano, Solera

Cien Lustros, Solera Gran Reserva

Torres Imperial Brandy

Torres Aqua d'Or

Torres 20, Hors d'Age

Jaime I, Reserva de la Familia (Torres)

Can you recomend or tell me anything about these bottlings?

[Jason Perlow]

Gran Ducque de Alba is the only one in the article that I can purchase here in Sweden. The other bottlings I can purchase is:

Fundador

Soberano, Solera

Cien Lustros, Solera Gran Reserva

Torres Imperial Brandy

Torres Aqua d'Or

Torres 20, Hors d'Age

Jaime I, Reserva de la Familia (Torres)

Can you recomend or tell me anything about these bottlings?

Fundador and Soberano are solera quality, equivalent to VS in cognac terms -- the basic level aging, which is 6 months to 1 year.

The others sound like they are Solera Reserva, SGV or higher (the higher grade ones are not avaliable in the US -- if you try them, please tell us all about them.). I've never seen Torres or Cien Lustros Brandy in the US.

[john@thebar]

I was looking through the brandy lock box at the wine and liquor shop today ( in Chicagoland) and spied a bottle of Carlos I Imperial retailing for a hefty $99.99. If anyone is interested, I'll be glad to do a little researching and see if there is anymore available.