Copper and Kings is an up and coming American Brandy distiller, headquartered in Kentucky in the heart of bourbon country. While they offer a number of fairly widely distributed grape and apple brandies, including American Craft Brandy and Floodwall, this particular Copper and Kings Capitol Strength Single Barrel, a grape brandy, was a limited release to the DC area. The label on the bottle states that their grape brandies are matured in bourbon and medium char American white oak barrels, but the exact source of this single barrel is not clear at all. All I could find from the internet, via Dry85 in Annapolis, MD, is that this was finished for 3 years in a Willet rye barrel. That alone is a very interesting fact and makes this brandy unique.
I like that Copper and Kings takes a whiskey-like approach to their brandy with no additives and good old-fashioned barrel aging to impart color and flavor. While the brandies are made with fruit and not grains, the mindset is still the same. Since it’s also made in Kentucky, there could be a little of that bourbon magic in the air as well. From the eyes of a whiskey-lover, let’s find out more about this Kentucky-made Copper and Kings Capitol Strength Single Barrel grape brandy. And because this isn’t a whiskey review, I took the liberty of using my Prestige Decanter Whiskey Aficionado Glass for this brandy.