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In this first non-whiskey alcohol review, I'm trying Copper & Kings "Butchertown" Reserve Casks Brandy. This is the first brandy I've ever bought and I've got to say, I dig it. Started in 2014 by Joe and Lesley Heron, the Louisville-based brandy upstart crafts a number of different brandy expressions, both from grapes and apples. Those spirits are then blended into an aged solera system of older expressions, created from mature stocks purchased across the country from other pot-distilling brandy producers. #WhiskeyTube #WhiskeyTube #RyeWhiskey
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Hey guys, my name is Clifton and welcome to my first non-whiskey spirit review on this channel
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because today we are reviewing Copper and King's Butchertown Brandy. So this is actually my first time buying a bottle of brandy. I tried a little bit
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you know, before I got into bourbon. Wasn't my thing. Haven't revisited since really
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But when I saw this Butchertown Brandy pop up on my local store's website
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I knew I had to get it for several reasons. First of all, it is 124 proof. That's right
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a 62% alcohol by volume. I had no idea that brandy was bottled at such high proof. I just
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never seen that before. Second of all, this was also on sale for half price. So normally this
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bottle goes for about 60, but it was on sale for 30. So you know I had to pick it up. Plus
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this bottle is from Louisville, Kentucky, so it can't be that far off from bourbon, right
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So Copper and King is a distillery out in Louisville, Kentucky. They are actually making their own stuff
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They do source some of their brandy for this. It's like a Solera-style aged brandy
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So what they're doing is they're mixing some of their own brandy with some older, like, 5 to 15-year-old brandy that they source from another distillery, I guess they're called
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I guess they're still distilleries. So it is mostly sourced, but the cool thing they're doing is they're combining about 75% of the older brandy that's been aged in used bourbon barrels
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And they combining it with 25 of their own stuff which is aged in American new oat barrels So they kind of giving it the bourbon treatment which is pretty exciting And especially for someone that you know new to brandy having that familiarity that you have with bourbon I think it going to help me a lot with like I guess
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understanding and figuring out the flavors that are in this. I want to go ahead and review it
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My notes may not be up to par with what I have them for like whiskey and stuff, but I'm just
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going to give a bourbon lover's opinion of this brandy and let you know what I think
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So I'm going to have it two ways. I'm going to have it neat in, uh, this is actually, I got this glass at a whiskey tasting event, but it's actually really similar to like a brandy glass
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I'm also going to have it on the rocks, mainly because I've noticed I've been going to rocks glasses and having high proof, like cast strength spirits on the rocks a lot lately
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Maybe it's because it's summer and it's really hot out, but something about having a really high proof spirit on a large piece of ice, it just is very refreshing
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So I figured brandy would be another spirit that would hold up well over ice, especially at this proof
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So I'm going to pour it at both and see which one I prefer. I'm going to start with my neat pour just because that's how I'm used to having whiskey when I review it
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On the nose, that's the most surprising thing to me. This does not smell like anything other than a dang good bourbon
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On first, on first, like nosing of it. Yeah, it's so rich
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You do get kind of like a, I always say muscadine because I'm most familiar with that. But you do get kind of like a deep, dark grape note
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at the end of the nose, but the main thing you get is like a vanilla caramel
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bomb that you're used to with like a high proof bourbon, so that's what's
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really exciting to me. This reminds me so much of a good bourbon. Let's see if the
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taste is up to par with that. That is just as deep and rich and complex as most barrel bourbon that I had
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It's almost like a grape-flavored, like a grape soda. It's hiding back there, though
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It's not, like, overwhelmingly, like, ooh, this isn't bourbon. You know, it tastes like a bourbon with, like, a grape note, if you can believe it
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This has a huge amount of oak influence. And I think that New Oak gives this such a whiskey-like characteristic
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I would recommend this any day to a bourbon drinker, a whiskey drinker that really wants to get into a new type of spirit
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Because Copper and Kings is doing it incredibly well. They're doing it like a bourbon
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And for the bourbon lover in me, that's incredible. The finish on it, it's just as long as a high-proof bourbon
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You get starting out with a lot of that vanilla, that toffee, that generic bourbon notes that you would expect
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but there's like a lingering finish of that grape, of that fruitiness, almost like a blackberry or
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even, I would even say like a ripe apple note on that. I'm just really impressed with this. As you
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can tell, like this is so out of my wheelhouse, but yet it feels so familiar. So I want to try it
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on the rocks before this gets too watered down. This, like I said, it's 124 proof, so it's gonna
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it can benefit from getting some dilution from the ice cube, but let's see how it holds up
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The fruitiness is way more forward now on the rocks compared to having it neat
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And I guess that's because it did lower the proof, so you're getting a lot more of the nuances in it. But I'm getting a lot of spiciness on the finish that I didn't notice the first time
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I noticed it had a long finish but I getting a lot of I guess barrel char or a lot of oak spiciness on the finish which is really good I would say that the finish on it isn quite as long and complex when you
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have it on the rocks compared to neat. And that's something that I really do love about high proof
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spirits. So I think I would probably drink it neat moving forward. When you put it on the rocks
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it makes it a lot easier and a lot smoother. But if you're drinking in a 124 proof spirit
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you don't want it to be easy and smooth, at least in my opinion. You want it to be rich
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complex, and just an abundance of flavor. And when you drink it neat, you do get that
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So I'll stop going on and on about this, but color me surprised. Maybe I'm not just a whiskey guy
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Even when you consider the $60 price point, this reminds me, I mean, I keep saying it
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but it reminds me of like an Elijah Craig Barrelproof, just with how complex it is
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So let's say you're someone who's never had a brandy before, you've never had a good brandy
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Pick this up if you like high-proof bourbon, because I think you'll be really surprised like
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I was at how similar it is, but how it kind of takes what you expect from bourbon and takes it
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a completely different direction, but in a really good way. So this gets my recommendation. If you're
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new here, I really appreciate you stopping by. And if you're interested, make sure to subscribe
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and I'll have a playlist in this video of my other whiskey reviews and maybe other Spirit reviews coming soon based on this
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because that was incredible. So let me know what you guys think, and I'll see you guys next video
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Bye
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