A Fine Bouquet

A few miles up a winding dirt road, the rugged coastal hills that split Mendocino County from north to south suddenly plateau at a grassy expanse known as Eagle Rock Ranch.

Wire-and-post fencing encloses a collection of plain wooden structures--among them a barn, an adjacent shed and a two-story residence. Tending a flock of sheep, grazing in the distance, seems to entail the day’s only work.

Yet, inside a box-like building, a once-abandoned still is working overtime to produce a high-powered, clear alcohol from fermented grape juice.

Despite the mystery and romance of a hidden hillside location, this is not modern-day moonshine.

Instead, the bulbous copper kettle, sweating above a gas fire, is at the core of a fledgling effort that portends California’s best and most sophisticated brandy venture.

And what, at first, looked to be a barn is actually an old cellar, only a portion of which is above ground. Inside, several hundred oak casks, filled with the carefully made golden liquor, are stacked floor to ceiling.

The principals in the 6-year-old Alambic Inc., claim their product, released for the first time earlier this year, rivals the better French Cognacs on the market.

Idle boasts? Not quite.

The distiller and cellar master is Hubert Germain-Robin, a Frenchman whose family has been in the Cognac business for two centuries. His partner, Ansley J. Coale Jr., is a former UC Berkeley professor with a doctorate in Greek and Roman history. The product these two fellows are making is as legitimate and serious as they.

In fact, this smooth, elegant drink, labeled Germain-Robin, marks the next step in the California wine industry’s evolution: the debut of super-premium alambic brandies. The activity here follows, by 19 months, Remy Martin’s first brandy release from its Napa Valley facility. And even one of the state’s giant producers, Christian Brothers, is about to reintroduce an XO, or special reserve, a high-end counterpart to its more popular, regular brand.

The debut comes at a time when sales of domestic brandies are increasing--or at least maintaining--their share of the market. Brandy’s current fortunes are considered significant, especially since most of the dark-colored spirits--whiskey, bourbon, Scotch--are suffering declines, according to industry analysts and trade groups alike.

Though dwarfed in size by other California distillers, Alambic Inc. can afford the extra care and special blending that would be lost in most other companies.

“I would compare this brandy with anybody’s Cognac,” said Germain-Robin. “I’m not embarrassed even to compare it with the finest made in France.”

Coale, 44, and Germain-Robin, 37, are forbidden by federal law from using the French appellation Cognac on their bottles. The omission, though, does not slight the quality apparent in the alambic brandy made at this remote ranch.

The term alambic indicates that the spirit originates in the same type of pot-bellied copper stills as those found in the Cognac region of Southwestern France. The one puffing away here was, in fact, last operational in the French village of Montboyer until the early 1950s when it was abandoned because of its small size.

Shipped to California, reassembled and laminated in lavender paint in 1982, the old equipment is working just fine. Coale estimates that his company is producing about 4,000 cases a year--a virtual afterthought in the combined domestic brandy and imported Cognac trade. But his bottles are selling briskly at $28 each, three or more times what a similar size, popular California brandy would bring at retail.

The seeds for this mountaintop distillery were planted in 1973, when Coale bought the 2,000-acre ranch after he and his wife became disenchanted with academic life in Berkeley. They were looking for something more rural than what the San Francisco Bay Area had to offer. After relocating to the hills above Ukiah on a full-time basis, Coale had a chance encounter.

Returning from a trip to Eureka, he picked up a hitchhiker who happened to be Germain-Robin, on vacation from France.

Discussion eventually turned to Cognac, in particular Jules Robin & Co., Germain-Robin’s family operation. And then, the rest came rather quickly.

“When I was touring around the United States, I had in the back of my mind the idea to start a Cognac-style distillery here,” said Germain-Robin. “I realized that in Mendocino County people were trying to create a culinary tradition that, in addition to good food, included good sparkling and still wines. So, I wanted to bring our methods and tradition over here in order to make the best possible brandy in the United States.

“We’re lucky. It’s turned out better than we had any reason to expect . . . and it looks like we can even make some money,” Germain-Robin said.

As for Coale, he was unsettled careerwise at the time, but became enchanted with the idea of distilling wine into something more robust.

“I couldn’t imagine anything more interesting to do than make brandy,” he said. “It seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime.”

At the heart of the brandy-making process, here and elsewhere, are the stills--a series of tanks and tubing at the center of which is a large, enclosed kettle.

At Alambic Inc., low-alcohol wine is heated until steam is created. The hot vapor is then cooled after traveling through the tubing coils enclosed in another vessel. Eventually, this steam condenses into a high-alcohol liquid before entering a third container.

In the alambic or Cognac process, the liquid is distilled again thus intensifying the desired characteristics and further increasing the alcohol content to about 70%.

Once distilled, the brandy is cooled and then placed in Limousin French oak barrels to impart the traditional straw color and deep flavor. Evaporation and careful dilution over several years reduces the alcohol content to the required 40%.

Another factor distinguishing Alambic Inc., is the distillation of premium, varietal wines, made elsewhere in Mendocino. The firm uses five: French Colombard, Chenin Blanc, Palomino, Gamay and Pinot Noir. The last two are red wines and that is where Alambic breaks from French tradition. In France, only wines made from white grapes can be distilled for Cognac.

The varietal nature of these wines, after distillation, are maintained. Each is placed in an oak barrel designated for that particular grape. The high-powered alcohols are then kept separate for two to three years. Eventually, a signature blend of the five is created and further aged to allow the varying flavors to meld.

The Germain-Robin now on the market is composed of brandies about 4 years old. Although four years is considered infancy in the world of fine Cognac, Germain-Robin said that his brandy develops the desired characteristics much more quickly than French brandies do. This refrain is heard, too, among some of California’s premium Cabernet Sauvignon producers, who have repeatedly stated that their fine red wines are quicker to mature than those of Bordeaux.

“When I first came to Mendocino, I never expected such quality from the brandy, but I am also surprised by how fast it’s aging,” said Germain-Robin. “We can obtain an XO-quality Cognac (generally, one aged at least eight years) in two-thirds the time.”

Alambic Inc.’s process differs dramatically from that of other, better-known California producers. E & J Gallo and Christian Brothers, for instance, employ huge, efficient, column stills. Where the alambic process allows for the complexities of the different varietal grapes to surface, column stills seek a lighter, less complicated beverage.

In the more widespread bulk method, the once-distilled liquid is then placed in American oak barrels and aged for at least two years to impart color and flavor. Such California brandies, however, do not undergo a separate, second distillation.

Furthermore, inexpensive Thompson seedless grapes are most often used for these products. And many firms adjust the brandy’s final flavor with the addition of white Ports, Sherries and caramel coloring, as permitted in federal guidelines.

Even with such expeditious techniques, the state’s bulk brandy producers continue to experience sales increases. Figures from the California Board of Equalization, for instance, place E & J Gallo Brandy as the fourth-best selling spirit in the state. During the first six months of this year, Gallo sales in California alone were 215,000 cases, up from 205,000 cases during a similar period in 1986.

So, Alambic Inc.’s brandy is arriving in the midst of healthy sales--regardless of quality or price--for the entire category.

“There is tremendous opportunity for a small California firm in this market, where some leading French Cognacs are getting $75 to $100 a bottle,” said Paul Gillette, industry analyst and publisher of the Los Angeles-based newsletter, Wine Investor. “A product perceived as excellent will always draw a constituency whether it be an automobile, clothes or a potable, such as brandy.”

Gillette attributes the strength of the entire category, in part, to its strong cachet as an after-dinner drink.

Philip Reich, wine buyer for Michael’s restaurant in Santa Monica, offered similar encouragement.

“Germain-Robin is the very first domestic brandy producer, and I think there will be more, to match the style of Cognac and, yet, give it the character of California,” he said. “There are two things that are ingenious about Alambic Inc. The first is that they have a person (Germain-Robin) trained in the Cognac method of distilling, and that makes a big difference. The second is that he understood how to find the special aromatic qualities of grapes that are unique to California.

“And if they can do this well on their first time out, then I, and they, know even better brandies are to come,” Reich said. “I’m very impressed.”

At Michael’s, Germain-Robin sells for $5 a glass. Other restaurants that carry the brandy include the Five Crowns in Corona del Mar, The Hobbit in Orange, Peppone’s in West Los Angeles and Bouzy Rouge in Newport Beach.

Selected retail outlets carrying the product include Brigg’s Liquor in West Los Angeles, the Duke of Bourbon in Canoga Park, High Time Gourmet in Costa Mesa, Jensen’s Market in Palm Springs, Red Carpet in Glendale and Wally’s in Westwood.

Coale hopes both lists will expand in the years to come. He says the company will ultimately introduce two older alambic brandies as his stock of aged distillates increases.

“Our worries right now are not about quality,” Coale said. “We’re just worried about selling the product.”