Asbach 15 Year Old 40%

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The most famed Weinbrand, Asbach has been distilling brandy since the late 1800s. Its most popular expression is Asbach Uralt, but the 15 year old is a supremely rich aged brandy with beautiful smatterings of spice and heat layered on top of the woodiness claimed from oak barrel maturation.

8. South African Brandy

South African brandy closely replicates the cognac process by double distilling grapes through traditional pot stills, which are slightly larger than the French brandy versions.

Much like some of their wine varieties, South African brandy comes highly rated, with a sweeter grape variety used, interesting flavors – stone fruits being prominent – and a strong regulatory framework in place to ensure quality distillation.

Van Ryn’s 10 Year Old Vintage Brandy

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Van Ryn’s comes from leading South African Distillery Distell. Wine grapes are drawn from all over the cape region to create the excellent brand, which starts at this 10 year expression, and goes out to a 27 year old version.

This is the type of brandy you ambush a cognac enthusiast with to show them there are other regions of excellence.

9. Armenian Brandy

Armenian brandy has a rich and interesting history, dating back as far as the 1200s. With generations of Armenians spread far and wide, most of the small country’s top quality brandy is exported.

It’s distilled from Armenian white grapes and spring water using traditional methods to create a stone fruit rich flavor.

Ararat 5 Year Armenian Brandy

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If you can get your hands on this – Ararat’s most popular expression – in the States, well done. While well priced it only comes over in limited quantities.

If you want to reach higher on the shelf, Ararat has an XO 15 year old version that’s richly produced, mixing stonefruit and blackcurrant flavors with the woodiness of old aged oak.