I confess that I also rarely drink and so I should leave the recommendation of specific brands to people who are more in the league of spirit connoisseur than I am.
Of course there are the famous, expensive brands like Hennesy which will delight most people but as far as the lesser-known and lesser-priced brandies I'm afraid I'd be hard pressed to recommend one over another merely because I haven't tried many of them.
As to mixing brandies in a cocktail there are a variety of web pages with many recipes available. Hopefully these links might serve to get you started.:
Brandy Cocktail Recipes - Index of Cocktails and Mixed Drinks with Brandy and Cognac
thanks, I’m hoping brandy taste better than wine...
thanks Stoat