Copper & Kings Arrives!

We've been telling you about the delicious brandies from Copper & Kings for weeks, but now you can try them for yourself! Finally available in all three retail outlets and available online! Available exclusively at K&L in California, Copper & Kings is going be the next big thing in American micro-distillation. Think of them as the St. George or the Anchor Steam of Kentucky. Started in 2014 by Joe and Lesley Heron, the Louisville-based brandy upstart uses three gigantic Vendome copper pot stills to craft 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. The results are absolutely incredible and we couldn't be more excited to offer them here to our savvy consumers. We've got a variety of different spirits in stock from the Louisville company, but let's focus on the big three for today:

Copper & Kings American Small Batch Brandy 34.99 - The American Small Batch brandy is made from stocks aged 90% in ex-Bourbon casks and 10% in new American oak, for a softer, more vanilla-laden flavor profile. The brandy glides over the tongue with a silky texture, but without ever losing that punch of oak flavor or the concentration of the fruit. It's perfect at 90 proof and mixes like a dream into a number of classic American whiskey cocktails like an Old Fashioned or Manhattan. Try it instead of Bourbon next time you're mixing and you'll see what the fuss is all about. Copper & Kings is ready to put American brandy on the map. Not as a secondary Cognac, but rather as a bold and expressive genre all its own. 90 proof.

Copper & Kings "Butchertown" Reserve Casks Brandy $59.99- At 124 proof, the Butchertown brandy is a beast of a spirit, packing an explosion of flavor normally found in bottles of Booker's or Four Roses, rather than Cognac or Armagnac. Using older reserve stocks from the solera base, 75% of which were aged in ex-Bourbon casks, the other 25% in new American oak, the brandy is brimming with Bourbon-esque flavors: charred oak, vanilla bean, and caramel, accented with the roundness of the fruit. Try this in a Manhattan, or even a Highball with ice and soda water. We think it will become a mainstay of your bar from that point forward.

Copper & Kings American Apple Brandy $39.99 - The American Apple Brandy is made from stocks aged 90% in ex-Bourbon casks and 10% in ex-sherry, which adds a textural richness to the finish that cannot be understated. The fruit is still front and center, pure apple skin and cider-like flavors, but with a weight and supple texture that coat the palate and add richness to the backend. At 100 proof, it mixes like a middleweight--something less robust than applejack, but less delicate than Calvados. It's tailor made for a Jack Rose and for the price it's something you can sip or mix with reckless abandon. 100 proof.

I can't tell you how excited I am to have these available. I've been mixing cocktails all weekend with all three spirits, using Jen Colliau's Small Hand Foods mixers and following all the brandy recipes on her website. Brandy Milk Punches, Pan American Clippers, Bittered Slings, and more. I brought them over to a co-worker's house this past Sunday and made drinks for her and her friends. They were all begging me for the instructions by the end of the evening. You're going to be buying these bottles over and over and over again. These are not going to be brandies you try once and then move on from. They're going to be things you run out of and say, "Shit, I'm out of Copper & Kings again!"

-David Driscoll