OK spirit sleuths, have at it.
Cannot find any information on this anywhere on the internet. Picked it up from a bottle shop in Morelia, Mexico. Tastes… weird. Salty. Not unlikeable, with some patience, perhaps.
Any ideas? I see some vintage bottles labelled under Cazanove, but that seems like a defunct brand and this bottle (appears to be) new.
Well, here’s some digging on the F. Cazanove Bordeaux brand, which seems to have become detached from a physical distillery and its lineage by 1983, at latest:
Today, Cazanove may just be a horse-traded brand, where it means nothing more or less than its current owner makes of it. Perhaps, in this situation, it was just a way to bestow the appearance of authenticity on a some stuff someone wanted to sell?
Apparently, Cazanove makes a range of liqueurs in Mexico today.
My guess is that the original Cazanove either a/ had a distillery in Mexico, as many foreign companies did in the 50s, or b/ licensed a distillery to produce for them in the country.
If a/, name use for the Mexican market may have been sold with the distillery.
if b/, either name use was licensed after the original brand withdrew for market or the Mexicans just kept on using it when the mother company folded.
The original, French, Cazanove seems to have produced a range of liqueur à la Marie Brizard, but it was not a brand of note.
Cazanove liqueurs go far back in Uruguayan history. They have been around at least since the late 1890’s/early 1900’s.
Carrau & Cía. (a traditional Uruguayan company that imports and distributes Gruppo Campari products in Uruguay, among other brands) makes Cazanove liqueurs locally
Wow where did you buy it?
