We talk to people all the time who know they like American whiskey, but maybe don’t know exactly where to start. Sometimes they’ll know a few bottles they’ve tried and liked, sometimes they aren’t sure it’s Bourbon or Rye or a Single Malt they go for, and sometimes they just aren’t quite sure what whiskey is at all. That’s what we’re here for!
Brandy may be scarce on many of today’s cocktail menus, but it’s really the OG spirit of classic cocktails, and we think it deserves a bit of a Renaissance. Brandies of various kinds were distilled throughout the American northeast before Whiskey was ever even dreamed up farther inland, fueling the livers of the revolution and eventually making some of the first cocktails. Old school drinks that we generally associate with whiskey, like an old fashioned or Sazerac, were originally made with brandy, before changing national tastes made American whiskey the barrel aged spirit du jour.
What the hell is brandy anyway?
The most common kind of brandy, and what most people are talking about when they say brandy, is produced from grapes, and is often aged in barrels, though not always. The grapes are picked younger than is usual for table wine production, making a more acidic and less sugary white wine, which is then distilled into an eau de vie, or unaged brandy, before generally going into oak barrels.
