When you look at the explosive growth of wine in the United States, you’d think that grape-based distilled spirits would also be wildly popular, but they aren’t. For some odd reason grape based spirits like brandy, cognac, and armagnac are often absent from many home liquor cabinets, and are rarely found on many conventional cocktail menus. Brandy seems to have gotten a bum rap: it is often relegated to a ‘cooking spirit’ and ignored by lifestyle press. But brandy is delicious, and not only does it deliver some of the great flavors people are drawn to with wine, it’s also quite compatible with food. American brandy is also pound for pound one of the most affordable aged products on the market, and a majority of American brandy (60%) is actually made and consumed in the United States. So why aren’t more people drinking it? The answer may come down to perception. Because of its relatively low price, American brandy often is considered ‘cheap’, so instead of looking at the immense value in the spirit category, it’s dismissed for being priced so low. For us, it wasn’t until we had an opportunity to blind taste American brandy next to all the other kinds of brandy at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition that the lightbulb really turned on. Divorced of all of the perception issues, we discovered a delightful spirit that not only captured what we love about grapes but also what we love about spirit aged in American Oak barrels. That spirit that we fell for was Paul Masson Brandy. Paul Masson Brandy is made from “premium grapes” distilled and blended in central California, then aged and bottled in Bardstown, KY at the Tom Moore distillery alongside bourbon from Sazerac.

• published: 22 Mar 2016
• views: 5953