By Kirk Miller What we’re drinking: OMAGE Very Special, VSOP and XO Where it’s from: The Brand House Group is behind this Cognac-inspired brandy, produced in California using four grape varietals from the Central Valley. Why we’re drinking this: I’ve been hearing a lot of chatter about “California brandy” and was curious about how this style would compare with Cognac. With OMAGE, there are similarities with French brandy, but also important differences. OMAGE uses the méthode cognaçaise of pot distillation, but there’s an added column distillation for refinement; plus, the barrel aging takes p…