Dom Bre Extra Premium

• Distillery: Alambique Guarani

• Location: Guarani, Minas Gerais

• Aged: Yes

• Aging time: 3 years

• Type of wood used for aging: Oak

• ABV: 40%

Dom Bre’s Extra Premium, aged three years in French Oak, has had itself a pretty good year. The Cupula of cachaça ranked it in the top 50, which can make any distiller happy.

More to the point, it’s the consumer who should be happy with this product. Dom Bre EP is one of those cachaças that one could return to over and over like a good song. Whereas last week, I spoke about another cachaça being cerebral, this one is not.

Dom Bre is a light brown, maybe even amber. The nose is extraordinarily light. Where most good cachaças have a very cane heavy nose, this one doesn’t. I got a bit of vanilla, but not much else. The palate is simple and straight forward. It hides a bit, sitting on the front of the tongue. Its oakiness is consistent, but not overwhelming.

I found this to be a black-tie cachaça, one that a person could drink throughout an evening at an event and not think much about. While the first sips gave me flavor just upfront, over time, I felt this EP in more of my mouth as time went on.  

I don’t want to suggest that Dom Bre EP is disappointing. It’s not. Especially compared to many other Eps. However, it’s almost too coy with its flavor. It’s trying to a toe the line. It’s immensely drinkable, and with a relatively reasonable price of around 130 Reais, it’s within many people’s reach. It could be your best cachaça but is not likely to be. But it should be part of your collection, even one that you share with friends regularly. It could be one that you have at an event. It won’t intimidate or turn off those who are unfamiliar with cachaça.

So if I sound confused, it’s because I haven’t decided where exactly this product falls. Is it good? Yes. Is it the best I’ve had? Probably not.