Review: Germain-Robin Alembic Brandy One-Time Blend No. 23
Germain-Robin makes some amazing brandies, but this may be the best I’ve seen from the company to date. The catch: it’s a one-time only blend, as the name suggests, so if this review catches your palate, better grab a bottle now.
The focus of this blend is French colombard grapes, which were the preferred grape in Cognac before the phylloxera era. As a blend, it is a single barrel mix of a number of different brandies aging in the Germain-Robin collection, primarily including the following distillates:
- 1991 colombard from Ukiah Valley
- 2003 and 2004 malolactic colombard from Hopland
- 2006 colombard from Redwood Valley
- 2006 viognier used for aromatics
Germain-Robin has all the technical information you could want here. While you’re digesting all of that, let’s give it a taste:
The nose is beautiful, that classic sweet raisin aroma — but as it develops in the glass it also develops an herbal note of rosemary and thyme, which makes for a fun study in contrasts. The palate keeps things more directed to the sweeter side of the street, where notes of baked apples, cinnamon buns, and golden raisins dominate. The finish offers some astringency, a mild reminder of the high-acidity colombard grapes used to make this spirit. Lightly spicy, even peppery at times, it lets you down easy, with a throat-coating brown sugar sweetness that absolutely begs for another sip or two.
Not only is the brandy worthwhile, it’s an excellent value at this price.
Aka Germain-Robin Only Once Blend No. 23.
84.2 proof.
A / $75 / craftdistillers.com
Germain-Robin Alembic Brandy One-Time Blend No. 23
$75
