Brandy de Jerez

I found Annek's sherry thread quite appropriate to my current state of mind. With the recent cooling trend, a fine standing rib roast seemed just the thing for dinner last Sunday, and afterwards I found myself reaching for a new bottle of Grand Duque D'Alba, having finished off the last one in April with my kind neighbor as he helped me ressurrect my computer after it contracted a nasty social disease on another website.

Spanish brandies are a real treasure. They are created using a solera system so that each bottle is comprised of spirits of varying age. In the best of these (solera gran reserva) some spirits are quite old indeed. The final product is , to my taste absolutely exquisite. These are among my very favorite spirits, and like most sherries, a real bargain in our markets.

The taste reflects what it is, a distilled concentrated essence of sherry. Like a fine cognac witha sweet deep glow these are maybe the best after dinner drinks around. There is certainly nothing better with a fine cigar.

Several brands are readily available and all are good. Grand Duque is the heaviest,and sweetest and is my favorite (though it's packaging is rather pathetic). Cardinal Mendoza is also outstanding, and a bit more refined. Lepanto is the lightest and most cognac (not grand Champagne) like. All are priced way below what you would pay for Cognac of similar quality. Just the thing for Thanksgiving dinner if you ask me.

Nice reminder. I haven't had a Spanish brandy for years. I think I'll look for Lepanto at Binny's soon. The nice thing about all these brandies is that if you're a student of Spanish history or literature the names of the brandies are like a refresher course--sort of like identifications on a college mid-term.

You're ruining all the secrets. I have an audience with the Cardenal and Ramon Allones later today. Next let's talk about sherry vinegar.

PS, Barbadillo is a very good, inexpensive, Brandy de Jerez available at Sam's. In truth, all of them are steals compared to similar French booze. Kind of like Bourbon used to be.

JeffB wrote:You're ruining all the secrets. I have an audience with the Cardenal and Ramon Allones later today. Next let's talk about sherry vinegar.

PS, Barbadillo is a very good, inexpensive, Brandy de Jerez available at Sam's. In truth, all of them are steals compared to similar French booze. Kind of like Bourbon used to be.

Excellent choice! I can verify that those fine gentleman get along famously. Never tried Barbadillo, but Lustau also makes a good BdJ which is quite a bargain.

Sherry vivegars are a favorite with me as well. Funny you should bring those up here, because with my roast last week I made a salad with baby spinach,apples, toasted walnuts and Mahon cheese dressed with walnut oil and Columela vinegar de Jerez. Like many fine sherry vinegars this is also made with a solera blending system just like the Bdj's. These vinegars , when compared to Balsamics also represent a great value here. One "trick" I like is to replace about 10% of the bottle with a good
PX sherry (Iuse the Lustau). This really adds a wonderful finish.

The Conde de Osbourne comes in a Salvador Dali designed bottle, costs abit more than most Jerez brandys, but is quite attractive physically and tastewise. Cheers.