K&L Liquors 15 Year Old Single Barrel #179 Cask Strength Organic California Brandy (750ml)

I've done some crazy things here at K&L over the years. $180 barrel aged Japanese Gin? 20 barrels of delicious single malt, declassified from that coveted category to meager Blended Malt to avoid tariffs? A whole barrel of Fernet?! Hell yes. Of all the crazy things I've done though, this one might just be the craziest. I was honestly astonished when my Oliver McCrum rep waltzed into the store one morning with six barrel samples from the lovely little Biodynamic farm in Fresno known for producing unusual spirits and collaborating with Thad Vogler and Bar Agricole on one of the best California brandies on the market. Even more intriguing were the random numbers and weird scribbles across the samples: 204 150 prof, 203 150 pr, 200 159pf, 199 160 proos, 178 164 p, 179 174 pF. 174 proof? Holy hell, there’s no way this is real. As is customary, I started with what appeared to be the lowest proof, a mere 75% alcohol by volume. Solid, oaky fruit, but hot. On we went until reaching the silliest of them all, barrel 179 at an astonishing 174 proof, or 87% alcohol. And somehow, it was absolutely incredible. Powerful citrus, deep florals, woodsy aromatics, tremendous concentration. I couldn’t believe I was enjoying it. It seemed almost too good to be true, but amazingly they agreed to bottle the barrel without additions or subtractions. As it turned out, the original proof reading was a bit off, and the final bottling strength came in at a mere 160 proof. It is remarkably drinkable even there, but slowly adding small amounts of good mineral water opens the spirit into something truly otherworldly. Give it a little time in the glass and it becomes so intensely orange confectionary that you might be forgiven for thinking our friend Thad had created some bizarre new Curaçao. This feels somewhere between an aged aromatic varietal of pisco and one of the funky single barrels we used to taste in the cellars at Copper & Kings back in the day. It is utterly delicious and completely unique, but do add the water slowly and give the aeration time to work its magic. So yes, this may be one of the craziest things I’ve ever bottled, but it is also, without question, the best single-barrel California brandy we’ve ever released. Bar none.