Asbach Original 3 Year Old Brandy (700ml)

Asbach’s history goes back to the year 1892, when company founder Hugo Asbachleft his adopted home country, France, to establish his own distillery in Rüdesheim on the Rhein in Germany. He had previously acquired a high degree of know-how in distilling wines from renowned French brandy producers, and he made use of this knowledge to achieve an ambitious goal: To create a product equal to Cognac that would also appeal more to German tastes.

Today Asbach has had a strong market presence for over 100 years and the brand continues to grow. Indeed, the great success of Asbach must be attributed to the initial standards of quality established first by Hugo Asbach. To begin with, the brandy is made almost exclusively of grapes from the Charente region in France (that region of France which contains the town of Cognac and where Cognac is made.) Compliance with precisely-defined specifications and the harvest of low yielding vines ensure the high quality of wines which later become the Asbach spirit. Distillation is done in small copper condensing and distilling kettles [pictured above left] to obtain only the purest distillates. A typical feature of this process is the double distillation, in which a virgin distillate is won in the first phase and is refined later in the second one. These spirits are later stored in small barrels made of Limousin oak in order to allow the exchange of oxygen, wood and distillate. These oak barrels, also named barriques, have a maximum capacity of 300 litres. Here the distillates age for between 24 to 46 months, i.e. significantly longer than the 12 months provided for by law. Finally, it is the master distiller's experience and sure instinct that lets him compose a harmonious blend with up to 25 individual distillates of different vintages and origin making up any one bottle of Asbach. After this blending, the Asbach specialties marry in oak vats for between three and six months before they are bottled for sale.

Other reviews... Amber. Spicy, dried fruit and raisin aromas. A soft entry leads to a dryish medium-bodied palate with wood spice and mild dried fruit notes. Finishes with a fruity, peppery fade of lean wood notes and peppery alcohol. Pleasant wood and spice notes, but not a lot of complexity. 38% Alc.Vol.
International Review of Spirits Award: Silver Medal
85 points (Highly Recommended) - tastings.com