[Review] Prestige Brandy XO Essence

[Dunkel]

I received this from Geterbrewed http://geterbrewed.ie/brandy-xo-essence.html  with more curiosity than hopefulness. The idea is that you mix the spirit essence with vodka (or other neutral spirit) to produce the spirit of your choice. I do not honestly believe that a sprit essence costing €3.10 can transform a bottle of vodka into an XO brandy, costing well over €100 in the shops. But, we'll see.

The spirit essence bottle is really tiny - 20 ml.

The ingredients are flavourings, brandyoil (whatever that may be), tannin, glycerine, invertose (invert sugar), distilled water and caramel colouring.
Now the method of making is simpler than making a pot of tea. Take some vodka;
This is Lidl's finest at €14.99 per 700 ml bottle.
Note this is 40% abv; the instructions suggest a "strong spirit". Now get an empty, clean screwcap wine bottle.
I sanitised this with Starsan (rinsed out afterwards), but it's probably not necessary, due to the high alcohol content. The instructions suggest 20 ml of spirit essence to 730 ml vodka, but here as I had no other vodka available I used 20 : 700. Should give a stronger brandy flavour if anything.
Next fill wine bottle half full of vodka, and add contents of spirit essence bottle. Stick screwcap on and shake. Then top up with rest of vodka, rinsing out essence bottle along the way. Shake again. Voila!
Then ask your butler to bring your finest decanter.


So what does it taste like? Colour is about right - maybe a touch pale.
Aroma is ok. Alcohol is definitely coming through (duh), but it smells like a brandy, maybe slightly soapy. I made this yesterday evening, and smelling it now, this soapiness is fading. The flavour has an obvious alcohol burn. It's full-bodied, smooth, tastes like brandy, and actually not bad. Fairly longish finish. A lot more drinkable than the base vodka.
In comparison to Lidl's "Majestat" German brandy (36%), the Majestat has a better aroma, a sweeter taste, but the finish is a bit shorter.
I'll try the comparison again in a week, to allow the flavours to marry. The large airspace in the decanter should help here. But so far, so promising. Final verdict next week, but I am certainly interested in trying some other essences in the range. Bombay Gin and Cherry Brandy look good.

[@geterbrewed]

Thanks for the review Dunkel, its great to see reviews with pictures, this range has genuinely surprised us with how well its doing. I'm going to try the XO brandy myself, it'll be interesting to see how it matures

[Greg2013]

Thanks for the review Dunkel, its great to see reviews with pictures, this range has genuinely surprised us with how well its doing. I'm going to try the XO brandy myself, it'll be interesting to see how it matures

Do ye have one of these essences that approximates the flavour of Malibu ? 

[LordEoin]

Nice one. It looks the job alright.
I wonder how they'd get on with the homebrew vodka kits?

[Dunkel]

Ok, time for final review. Does this taste like an XO brandy? No, of course not - if it did, it would be a miracle worker. Still a touch of soap on the nose, but lessened; flavour is somewhere between (for you brandy aficionados) for my palate a Cognac and a Spanish brandy - full-bodied, not as sweet as a Spanish, plenty of kick in it. Overall, a very pleasant spirit. Would I buy this again? Depends - not to make a brandy from scratch, but if I was given a bottle of vodka (which I don't drink) as a present, I would certainly use this essence to change it into something drinkable for my palate.
And I will definitely be trying some of the other essences. So overall, thumbs up