New stock – Old Spanish Brandies
Our newly acquired Gran Duque d’Alba Spanish brandies have a fascinating history which explains their superior quality. They were made by the Diez-Merito distillery and later sold to José-Maria Ruiz Mateos, having been kept untouched in casks for many years. Unfortunately the company was eventually dissolved for failing to pay millions of dollars in taxes to the Spanish government, but not before these bottles had been sold to an Italian. Both the Gran Reserva and the De Luxe Gran Reserva are therefore understood to be from around the turn of the 20th century, probably bottled in the 1960s giving them a barrel age of about 50 years. These wonderful old brandies are not to be confused with later, much more unremarkable brandies bottled after 1983, although much of the packaging is similar.