This is the same brandy as the Shareholder's Reserve, just with a new label and a new name. This is the blend given to Germain-Robin shareholders, composed from younger brandies selected for fragrance and delicacy blended with older brandies distilled from Pinot Noir that give structure, depth and richness on the finish. (The average age is about seven years.) Amazingly smooth. Only 200 cases produced each year.
Previously released in other incarnations, the Anno Domini is a solera-style blend that dates back to 1983 and runs into the late 90s; so you're talking a marriage of spirits from 30 years of age to about 15+. The selling point of the Anno Domini, however, is that the blend contains a bit of brandy distilled from dry-farmed Palomino from the late 80s—perhaps the rarest and most treasured gem in the library. The Anno Domini is the type of thing you break out after a fancy dinner. It's a crowd-pleaser on the highest level. Much more intense richness, underlined by a backbone of oak spice and the acidity from the pinot noir. It's the whole show, from beginning to end. Big, undulating waves of pinot noir fruit that come over the palate like a pulsing beat of goodness. -David Driscoll, Spirits Buyer
A blend of some 12 brandies, roughly 80% of the volume pinot noirs. The components are mostly about 17 years old. When we released this brandy (1996), Robb Report Magazins’s expert panel named it #1 in their list of the world’s “Best of the Best” liquors (#3 was the “Richard Hennessy” cognac, currently priced at $3000). Very long and complex finish.
Germain-Robin brandies have no alcoholic roughness. Due to their origin in premium table-wine grape varietals, Germain-Robin brandies are unusually aromatic and flavorful, with no hint of harsh alcohol. It is interesting to compare any of them to a glass of cognac. Note the absence of the usual slight burning sensation in the nostrils (“attack”). Almost all brown spirits add about 2% (or more) of sugar and caramel: these coat the sugar receptors on the front of your tongue, giving a false impression of smoothness which disappears when you swallow: the back part of your mouth and the top of your throat have no sugar receptors, so harshness, or “bite”, is immediately apparent. Germain-Robin has no “bite” naturally: from the high quality of the grapes we use.
A blend of some 12 brandies, roughly 80% of the volume pinot noirs. The components are mostly about 17 years old. When we released this brandy (1996), Robb Report Magazins’s expert panel named it #1 in their list of the world’s “Best of the Best” liquors (#3 was the “Richard Hennessy” cognac, currently priced at $3000). Very long and complex finish