Unaged Fruit Brandies for Spring

Copper & Kings Un-Aged Apple Brandy is twice-distilled in handcrafted Vendome copper pot-stills made in nearby Louisville, Kentucky. Made without any additives, it is non-chill-filtered and bottled at 45% ABV.

Frísco is a pisco-inspired spirit made in San Francisco, a locale where pisco historically had strong footing. Founder Charlie O'Connell was inspired to bring a local riff to market after traveling through South America, and partnered with San Francisco's Seven Stills for production. Bottled at 45% ABV, Frísco (pronounced "frees-koh") is made from California muscat grapes and is unoaked.

Portland, Oregon based Clear Creek Distillery sources Williams (also known as Bartlett) pears for this brandy from the nearby Hood River Valley. Whole pears are crushed and fermented, then distilled in pot stills. According to the distillery, it takes approximately thirty pounds of pears to produce one 750ml bottle. The spirit is bottled without barrel ageing. It is available in 750ml, 375ml, and 50ml bottles, as well as in higher priced bottles that contain an entire pear.

Pear Brandy was one of the first products made by St George Spirits after they were founded in 1982. They start with whole organic Bartlett pears, picked at the height of ripeness and distill in copper pot-stills. The goal here, as with all great eau-de-vie is to create a pure unaffected expression of the base distillate. About 30 pounds of fruit are used to create just one 750ml bottle.

Clear Creek's Blue Plum Brandy is an American take on the spirit known as Slivovitz in Eastern Europe and Quetsch in France. It is fermented in pot-stills from a mash made of Italian blue plums grown in the Pacific Northwest.

Clear Creek is a distillery located in Oregon established in 1985 by Steve McCarthy. He creates eau-de-vies, grappas, and liqueurs, but his single malt whiskey is what he can't keep stocked. The labor of love, however, lay with his fruit-based spirits which deserve more attention than they get. The fruit used for this eau-de-vie is organically grown Mirabelle plums from the King Estate near Eugene, Oregon. It is sold in 375ml sized bottles.

Pronounced "door-chol," San Antonio's Dorćol Distilling Co was founded in 2013 by Chris Mobley and Boyan Kalusevic, two friends who met in college 10 years prior. Their first spirit is Kinsman Apricot Rakia, an unaged brandy made from de-pitted, de-stemmed Serbian apricots. After double-distillation in a custom-built 400 L., direct-flame copper pot-still from Belgrade, the brandy is chill-filtered then bottled at 42% ABV.

Singani is a spirit that has been produced since 1530. It has its own DO (denomination of origin) and GI (geographical indication) and can only be produced in the Bolivian Andes. The grapes (of which only muscat of Alexandria can be used) must be planted at a minimum of 5250 feet (1600 meters). As Singani is not recognized as its own spirit category in most of the world, it can only be described as a brandy, but it is better to think of it as an eau-de-vie. This Singani is the first to be available in the United States and for that you can thank director, Steven Soderbergh and his blood, sweat, and tears (and money).

Harvest Spirits is one of New York’s original craft distillers. Located on a family orchard a bit south of Albany, their tiny, 100-gallon pot-still turns out delicious spirits from the surrounding area’s celebrated orchard and stone fruits. The eau-de-vie’s production is traditional with two distillations from a dry, freshly-fermented cider.

St. George starts out with whole California raspberries, picked at the height of ripeness to retain the freshness and purity of the fruit. Distilled in their proprietary copper pot-stills, the objective here was to capture the aromas of raspberries at their peak. Produced without the use of extra sugars or any other additives.