Brandy Tasting and Story

Pity the lot of the Australian brandy distiller. Cheaper brandy, most of which is so heavily diluted with Coke and other mixers that any pretence of flavour or texture is virtually denied to the drinker, is getting harder to sell. Not uncommonly tricked up with caramel to make it appear older than it actually is, such brandy is usually matured for just on or above the Australian legal minimum of two years in oak casks. There’s little incentive for the distiller to do better, for despite a marginal price-driven rise in popularity against Scotch, most brandy still only fetches around $21-$25 in the marketplace and relies on a cost advantage for a high percentage of its sales.

It’s inconceivable, yet true, that for just 150-200 of this price exist a number of premium Australian brandies whose average age, quality, development and complexity deliver at least six times that of those sold at the bargain basement prices. Several even match up very well against Cognac and Armagnac of similar prices. They are the true bargains of Australian brandy.

To discuss Australian brandy, therefore, is to discuss two entirely separate markets. Commercial and premium brandies are served with different mixers, in different glasses, at different times of day, in different places and by and large to different people. Despite the relatively low cost required to upgrade to them, no amount of promotion and marketing incentive is ever likely to convert a significant proportion of regular cheap brandy drinkers to devotees of premium brands.

The tasting conducted to provide the backbone of opinion for this article clearly identified the pick of the commercial Australian brandies presently available as Angoves’ St Agnes 3 Star Brandy $21 approx. and Hardys Black Bottle $25 approx., both very different spirits. Its amber appearance precedes the Hardys’ developed, caramel nose, punctuated with estery, heady spirit influences. Smooth, clean and a little one-dimensional, its palate reveals youthful peach and citrus characters. Also a little heady, the Angoves reveals fresher nutty, citrus and rose oil aromas. Its palate, youthful enough to still finish a fraction hot, is fruity, clean and nutty with marzipan and confection-like complexity.

Less impressive is the Mildara Supreme Brandy $21 approx., with its youngish, yellow appearance and simple floral and heady aroma and whose teabag-like aldehyde characters, hotness and rawness display a lack of sufficient tuning to appeal. The fifty-fifty French-Australian blend today sold as Remy Brandy $22 approx. is a disappointing amalgam of headings and tailings-influenced spirits that simply tastes dirty, raw and oily, with an alarmingly bitter finish. Fully imported from France, the Chatelle Napoleon looks flat and dank, with the obvious inclusion of both headings and tailings spirits. Surprisingly developed, the palate has a thick, oily texture and light nuances of chocolate and caramel.

Now it’s time to declare my hand. I’m one of the school who believe that while single malt Scotch tends to taste too developed and oaky after fifteen to eighteen years, this is when fine brandy, Cognac and Armagnac especially, come into their own. I never add water, ice or mixer to any spirit other than gin and generally never bother with Cognac younger than XO, simply because I don’t see the point.

So imagine my surprise when the Australian brandy I most admired in this tasting was Angoves’ St Agnes 5 Star Old Liqueur Brandy, which at $35 approx. per bottle is considerably cheaper than its more seasoned stablemate, the St Agnes 7 Star VO Brandy $50 approx.. With an average age of sixteen years, a complex and harmonious vanilla and hazelnut-like fragrance, this stunning brandy is so smooth and refined there’s not a hard edge in sight. Taught and creamy, with lingering nutty and rancio flavours, this seems to me a perfect compromise between freshness, vitality and oak maturation.

Similarly priced to the St Agnes Old Liqueur Brandy is Metaxa’s 5 Star Brandy, a popular Greek spirit with spicy chestnut flavours, tangerine-like fruit and liqueur-like texture. Its freshness and forward confection flavours almost entirely conceal any development in oak, so it’s difficult to rate this brandy close to the Angoves. It’s softness and sweetness makes its broad appeal easy to understand.

Obviously darker in colour and more oaky, complex and citrusy in its bouquet, the St Agnes 7 Star VO Brandy has the character and personality I’ve come to expect of a substantially matured Scotch. Factor in that some components of the blend are fifty years of age and its minimum age is twenty years, and all makes perfect sense. I don’t find the spirit as balanced as the 5 Star and for me the oak is over-done and slightly varnishy. There’s no denying this spirit’s personality and character, its complexity or the intensity of its fragrance, but I’m not as convinced. You may be, however, and if you are, $50 is cheap buying.

Another venerable old Australian brandy whose grandfatherly age and consequent development will divide opinions, the McWilliams Old Liqueur Brandy $55 approx. is a dark, powerful spirit with complex chestnut-like flavours and lingering citrusy fruit. It’s a matter of personal taste whether you find its hotness excessive or its complexity and character the best thing since Martell Cordon Bleu.

I liked the sophistication and spicy, stonefruit flavours displayed by the stray bottle of Courvoisier XO which was thrown into this tasting as a ring-in. I enjoyed its balance, rich vanilla oak and lingering flavours. Slightly aggressive, the spirit finished with beautiful integration and refinement. But I preferred the Angoves 5 Star on the day.

Some facts, personal and general, emerge from this review. Like Scotch malt whisky, premium Australian brandies become more opulent, exaggerated and individual with extended cask age. What they may gain in character, they tend to sacrifice in terms of balance and integrity. I prefer to have drunk them before this occurs. But how about you?

John Angove and his fellow members in the newly-formed Australian Brandy Marketing Group, which unites Australian-owned brandy makers and distributors in a tangible effort to promote the profile and virtues of brandy to the local consumer, readily recognise the existence of two entirely separate markets for their spirit.

‘Our old brandies are sold into gentlemen’s clubs and from the after-dinner spirit and liqueur trolleys in fine restaurants’, he says. ‘They’re stocked in retail outlets but hardly move at all in comparison to the 3 Star brand, whose strength is its off-premise sales.’

Caught in the crossfire, the St Agnes 5 Star Old Liqueur Brandy is today the buy of the moment in Australian-made spirit. Neither the bargain basement nor the de luxe product in the Angoves range, its crisis is one of identity. There’s no doubt its age and quality haven’t received due recognition and its retail price is no reflection whatsoever of its character and refinement.

The Australian Brandy Marketing Group, whose members include BRL Hardy, Mildara Blass, Southcorp, Tucker Seabrook and Angoves, has set itself the task of increasing the average Australian drinker’s awareness towards brandy. Let’s hope it’s not long before they succeed, for Angoves have been making brandy for eighty-seven years and it would be wonderful to think they had at least another eighty-seven left in them. Please login to post comment