Laird's Applejack 86 Straight Brandy 750ml

Laird & Company's story begins in 1698, when William Laird emigrated from Fife, Scotland, and settled in Monmouth County, New Jersey, where he began distilling the region's abundant apple crop. His descendant Robert Laird served under George Washington during the Revolutionary War, supplying the Continental Army with applejack, and Washington himself reportedly requested the family's recipe for what he called cyder spirits. In 1780, Robert Laird received License No. 1 from the newly formed federal government, making the company the oldest licensed distillery in the United States.

Applejack is made from whole, tree ripened apples, including heritage varieties like Winesap, fermented and pot distilled before aging in charred oak barrels. This blended expression combines roughly 35 percent aged apple brandy with 65 percent neutral grain spirit, a style Laird's introduced in the early 1970s to offer a lighter, more affordable alternative to its all apple brandy bottlings. Though the recipe shifted from the company's original straight apple brandy, the underlying distillate is still produced using the same methods the Laird family has relied on for generations, now centered at the North Garden, Virginia facility, with aging and bottling still handled at the historic Scobeyville property in New Jersey.

The nose carries gentle green and red apple character alongside faint char and a soft vanilla undertone. On the palate, bright, tangy apple flavor gives way to light wood spice and caramel, closing on a warm finish with lingering oak.