David Bowie, purveyor of fine brandy-flavor-infusing music

The jury’s still out on whether playing music helps plants grow, but the Copper & Kings distillery is convinced it’s good for brandy. The Louisville, Kentucky-based outfit plays music for their brandy, ranging from mainstream rock to metal to jazz, in the hopes that it will make the booze more flavorful.


Sometimes the music is themed around holidays; owner Joe Heron says that for the 4th of July, the employees played uplifting music from Bruce Springsteen, Jimi Hendrix, and that great American, David Bowie. Other times, the music is more or less a random shuffle, or simply dependent on the tastes of whoever’s working that day. Heron also mentions playing Lenny Kravitz, My Morning Jacket, and The Doors, although—incredibly—neither the R&B singer Brandy, nor the song “Brandy, You’re A Fine Girl,” come up at any point.

Weirdly, there seems to be some scientific basis to Copper & Kings’ rock-oriented aging process. The vibrations triggered by loud music causes liquid to circulate within a barrel. In the case of brandy, the more contact it has with the surface of the oak barrel, the more flavor it absorbs. Heron’s “sonic aging” method ensures that more of the alcohol absorbs flavor. However, brandy takes a full two years to age, so it’ll be some time before we learn whether Heron’s method produces a more flavorful drink, or just a bottle of brandy that’s sick to death of Lenny Kravitz.