Galileo 7-70: Especial Gourmet

Galileo 7-70: nice writing

Research conducted prior to my Spanish holiday had revealed that the Galileo 7-70 brandy was made in the area I would be visiting – Murcia. I’d read it was supposed to contain a blend of spirit aged between 7 and 70 years old (hence the name) and, unsurprisingly, this was intriguing enough to convince me I should seek it out. I’ve related the specific details of my search previously, and even offered some opening remarks, so let’s skip any preliminaries and get to the appraisal.

The bottle looks cool enough – old and classical (yet cheap), but there is the slightest impression of balsamic vinegar about it. While at 20% ABV, it was never going to be particularly interesting, was it? It makes you wonder why they don’t bottle it at a higher strength, but maybe that’s the way it comes out of the cask. As it is it tastes like water with a hint of brandy.

I soon started pouring quadruple measures since a double would only be equivalent to a single standard spirit, and soon after that started taking it with ice. It sure looks nice in the glass in that form and it makes a decent savoury sipper that way.

Soon though, I came to feel that it was missing a degree of sweetness, and that if I could add it, I’d be on to a winner. I mixed up a batch of sugar syrup, and just adding a few drops confirmed my hypothesis.

As far as you’re concerned, is this something you should consider picking up? In all honesty I’d say not. The 7-70 years thing doesn’t mean anything if the resulting product is as uninteresting as this, and who buys a bottle for the privilege of adding their own sugar syrup to it? So ultimately it was nice enough, but only because I made it so.

In its favour is the fact that it was cheap, and you could always use it for cooking, but I’m not here to comment on the use of alcohol in cooking, though I do think that is what it’s for anyway - hence "Especial Gourmet" being written on the bottle. If you like brandy, get some proper brandy – something that is at least 38 ABVs, preferably 40.