My World of Brandy

Luigi Francoli Grappa Nebbiolo Del Piemonte is a grappa that I bought in one airport in Italy. The distillery was founded in 1875 in the village of Campodolcino above Lake Como. Over the years the company grow into Gruppo Francoli and nowadays they produce and distribute grappa, liqueurs, distillates, wines, dried ham (prosciutto) and electrical energy. All the grapes used by Distillerie Francoli come from the Piemonte region. They uses a slow distilling process, ensures that the grappa is smooth and has a distinctive flavour. Luigi Francoli Grappa Nebbiolo Del Piemonte has the ABV of 41.5% which is higher than normal. The grape remains used to produce this grappa is Nebbiolo. After the distillation the grappa has been stored for 8 months in inert tanks. Since this a young un-oaked grappa the colour is clear. The nose is strong with notes of sage and liquorice. The taste is of a full bodied grappa with a long finish. A very good white young grappa.    

 Nonino is a grappa producer in the Friuli Venezia-Giulia regionsituated in northeastern Italy. The distillery was started by Oraio Nonino in 1897 and today the distillery is run by the sisters Cristina, Antonella and Elisabetta. They are the fifth generation Nonino. The grappa has been distilled in the traditional discontinual method. For the Antica Cuvée the grapppa has been aged in barriques and small casks under seal and permanent surveillance by the Customs and Monopoly Agency in the seven Grappa Ageing Warehouses of the Nonino Distilleries. They are bottled without the addition of color additives. No E150 is used here. The Antica Cuvée aged five years is a blend of Grappas from fresh pomace among which Cabernet, Merlot and Refosco, aged from 5 to 20 years in barriques and small casks. The ABV is 43%. Colour: Light amber Nose:  Rich aromas of grappa and spices Taste: Rich warm taste with notes of orange, brioche, spices and oak. Aftertaste: Long and lasting w...

Villa Zarri is an Italian producer who makes brandy (brandy italiano) very similar to Cognac and Armagnac but with a bit more experimentation since the rules are not as hard. The wine Villa Zarri uses for distillation, is made of Trebbiano and the still used are the Charentais copper stills using a discontinuous production method. Then the brandy is put into oak casks made from French oak trees from Alliers or Limousin. This 16 year old brandy is a traditional blended brandy. The indiviual components of this brandy comes from different years but all are at least 16 years old but the mean age of the vintage is higher than that. The colours is like amber. In the nose I get caramel, apricots and and some spices. Quite deep and rich smell. In the taste I get apricot, some cinnamon, sweetness and coffee and some tannins in the back. In the aftertaste I get spices and tannins in the back of the mouth. A balanced and elegant brandy. More spice in the taste than the limited 23 year old.

Nismes-Declou is an Armagnac brand owned by the Castarede family. The regulations for an Armagnac stipulate that a VSOP Armagnac is made from a blend of eaux-de-vie of which the youngest has been aged for at least 4 years in oak.  In practice, the Armagnac houses can use older Armagnacs to bring in a richer taste. This VSOP has a mean age of eight years and the youngest eaux-de-vie is six years old. So Nismes-Declou has brought some older stock to give it more taste. The ABV is 40% which is normal for Armagnac. Colour: Light amber Smell: Sweet dried fruits and grapes. Taste: Dried fruits with some spice Aftertaste: Long lasting with hints of spices A good VSOP. In comparison with the XO I would choose the XO, but then the XO cost 45% more than the VSOP.

Time to go back for a cognac now and the producer Bache Gabrielsen. This producer has an old history and this cognac house was founded in 1905 by Thomas Bache-Gabrielsen and is still today run by the family of Bache Gabrielsen. Thomas was an immigrant from Norway and this cognac house has strong connections with Norway. This cognac the Thomas XO prestige is a bit different from their normal XO cognac. The XO means that the cognac is at least 10 years old or if it was bottled before march 2018 it could be also minimum of six years old. The ABV is 40% and the speciality with this cognac is that it was stored in small oak casks. How small the oak casks were I don't know but probably smaller than the normal sized oak casks used for cognac which are the size of 350l or 500l. But smaller oak casks give away more oak taste to the cognac compared to bigger oak casks so for the Thomas XO Prestige I expect more oak flavours such as cinnamon. Colour: Soft amber Nose: Dried fruits with some...

In this blogpost I return to Armagnac and this time a single vintage 1978 from the producer Samalens. But first a short description on how Armagnac is made. Armagnac is a brandy from France produced in the Armagnac region in Gascony. It is distilled from a white wine which is made from different allowed grapes such as Colombard, Ugni Blanc etc. The big difference from Cognac is that during distillation most producers uses column stills instead of pot stills. Armagnac is distilled once and after the distillation the ABV is around 52%. So compared to Cognac they say that Armagnac contains a more rustic character. Grapes are harvested in the fall and the wine is distilled throughout the winter. All distillation must be finished by March 31. Only French oak barrels are allowed to be used for the ageing of Armagnac. To be released as a vintage the Armagnac must be at least ten years old. The producer Samalens tarted in 1882 in the Bas-Armagnac region of Armagnac. Samalens are one of th...

Now the time has come to try a grappa. Grappa is not truly a brandy as it is made from the pomace that is left over from winemaking. Grappa has to be made in Italy and made from pomace. That means it cannot be called brandy as brandy requires the distillation of grape juice. Grappa has a long history in Italy and it has been done for maybe eight hundred years now. Grappa can be everything a bad tasting moonshine to an excellent aged grappa competing with good cognacs. For this tasting I have chosen the Morbida grappa from producer Poli in in Schiavone near Bassano Del Grappa in the Veneto region of Italy. If you have the chance please visit the Poli museum in Bassano del Grappa. It is very interesting and also have a part just focusing on corkscrews of all things. Poli distillerie was founded in 1898 in Schiavon which is like 8 km from Bassano del Grappa and it has been run by the Poli family since the start. Poli has five principles that they work after.  1. To choose only f...