brandy

[Short for brandy-wine, from Dutch brandewijn : brandende, present participle of branden, to burn + wijn, wine; see wine.]

For more information on brandy, visit Britannica.com.

Background

The name brandy comes from the Dutch word brandewijn, meaning "burnt wine." The name is apt as most brandies are made by applying heat, originally from open flames, to wine. The heat drives out and concentrates the alcohol naturally present in the wine. Because alcohol has a lower boiling point (172°F, 78°C) than water (212'F, 100°C), it can be boiled off while the water portion of the wine remains in the still. Heating a liquid to separate components with different boiling points is called heat distillation. While brandies are usually made from wine or other fermented fruit juices, it can be distilled from any liquid that contains sugar. All that is required is that the liquid be allowed to ferment and that the resulting mildly-alcoholic product not be heated past the boiling point of water. The low-boiling point liquids distilled from wine include almost all of the alcohol, a small amount of water, and many of the wine's organic chemicals. It is these chemicals that give brandy its taste and aroma.

Almost every people have their own national brandy, many of which are not made from wine: grappa in Italy is made from grape skins, slivivitz in Poland is made from plums, shochu in Japan is made from rice, and bourbon in the United States is made from corn. Beer brandy is better known as Scotch whiskey. It is universally acknowledged that the finest brandies are the French cognacs that are distilled from wine.

Brandies are easy to manufacture. A fermented liquid is boiled at a temperature between the boiling point of ethyl alcohol and the boiling point of water. The resulting vapors are collected and cooled. The cooled vapors contain most of the alcohol from the original liquid along with some of its water. To drive out more of the water, always saving the alcohol, the distillation process can be repeated several times depending on the alcohol content desired. This process is used to produce both fine and mass-produced brandy, though the final products are dramatically different.

History

It is unknown when people discovered that food could be converted to alcohol through fermentation. It appears that the discovery of fermentation occurred simultaneously with the rise of the first civilizations, which may not be a coincidence. At about the same time that people in Europe discovered that apple and grape juice—both containing fructose—would ferment into hard cider and wine, people in the Middle East discovered that grains—which contain maltose—would naturally ferment into beer, and people in Asia discovered that horse milk—containing lactose—would naturally ferment into airag. The first distilled liquor may in fact have been horse milk brandy, with the alcohol separated from fermented horses' milk by freezing out the water during the harsh Mongolian winter.

It is also not known when it was discovered that the alcohol in fermented liquids could be concentrated by heat distillation. Distilled spirits were made in India as long ago as 800 B.C. The Arabic scientist Jabir ibn Hayyan, known as Geber in the West, described distillation in detail in the eighth century. Regardless of its origin, alcohol was immensely important in the ancient world. In Latin, brandy is known as aqua vitae, which translates as "water of life." The French still refer to brandy as eau de vie meaning exactly the same thing. The word whiskey comes from the Gaelic phrase uisge beatha also meaning water of life. People in the Middle Ages attributed magical, medicinal properties to distilled spirits, recommending it as a cure for almost every health problem.

Raw Materials

The raw materials used in brandy production are liquids that contain any form of sugar. French brandies are made from the wine of the St. Émillion, Colombard (or Folle Blanche) grapes. However, anything that will ferment can be distilled and turned into a brandy. Grapes, apples, blackberries, sugar cane, honey, milk, rice, wheat, corn, potatoes, and rye are all commonly fermented and distilled. In a time of shortage, desperate people will substitute anything to have access to alcohol. During World War II, people in London made wine out of cabbage leaves and carrot peels, which they subsequently distilled to produce what must have been a truly vile form of brandy.

Heat, used to warm the stills, is the other main raw material required for brandy production. In France, the stills are usually heated with natural gas. During the Middle Ages it would have required about 20 ft⁴ of wood (0.6 m⁴) to produce 25 gal (100 l) of brandy.

The Manufacturing
Process

The fine brandy maker's objective is to capture the alcohol and agreeable aromas of the underlying fruit, and leave all of the off-tastes and bitter chemicals behind in the waste water. Making fine brandy is an art that balances the requirement to remove the undesirable flavors with the necessity of preserving the character of the underlying fruit. Mass-produced brandies can be made out of anything as the intent of the people is to remove all of the flavors, both good or bad, and produce nothing but alcohol—taste is added later. Fine brandies are required to retain the concentrated flavor of the underlying fruit.

Fine brandy

1. The first step in making fine brandies is to allow the fruit juice (typically grape) to ferment. This usually means placing the juice, or must as it is known in the distilling trade, in a large vat at 68-77°F (20-25°C) and leaving it for five days. During this period, natural yeast present in the distillery environment will ferment the sugar present in the must into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The white wine grapes used for most fine brandy usually ferment to an alcohol content of around 10%.
2. Fine brandies are always made in small batches using pot stills. A pot still is simply a large pot, usually made out of copper, with a bulbous top.
3. The pot still is heated to the point where the fermented liquid reaches the boiling point of alcohol. The alcohol vapors, which contain a large amount of water vapor, rise in the still into the bulbous top.
4. The vapors are funneled from the pot still through a bent pipe to a condenser where the vapors are chilled, condensing the vapors back to a liquid with a much higher alcohol content. The purpose of the bulbous top and bent pipe is to allow undesirable compounds to condense and fall back into the still. Thus, these elements do not end up in the final product.
5. Most fine brandy makers double distill their brandy, meaning they concentrate the alcohol twice. It takes about 9 gal (34 1) of wine to make I gal (3.8 1) of brandy. After the first distillation, which takes about eight hours, 3,500 gal (13,249 1) of wine have been converted to about 1,200 gal (4,542 1) of concentrated liquid (not yet brandy) with an alcohol content of 26-32%. The French limit the second distillation (la bonne chauffe) to batches of 660 gal (2,498 1). The product of the second distillation has an alcohol content of around 72%. The higher the alcohol content the more neutral (tasteless) the brandy will be. The lower the alcohol content, the more of the underlying flavors will remain in the brandy, but there is a much greater chance that off flavors will also make their way into the final product.
6. The brandy is not yet ready to drink after the second distillation. It must first be placed in oak casks and allowed to age, an important step in the production process. Most brandy consumed today, even fine brandy, is less than six years old. However, some fine brandies are more than 50 years old. As the brandy ages, it absorbs flavors from the oak while its own structure softens, becoming less astringent. Through evaporation, brandy will lose about 1% of its alcohol per year for the first 50 years or so it is "on oak."
7. Fine brandy can be ready for bottling after two years, some after six years, and some not for decades. Some French cognacs are alleged to be from the time of Napoleon. However, these claims are unlikely to be true. A ploy used by the cognac makers is to continually remove 90% of the cognac from an old barrel and then refill it with younger brandy. It does not take many repetitions of this tactic to dilute any trace of the Napoleonic-age brandy.
8. Fine brandies are usually blended from many different barrels over a number of vintages. Some cognacs can contain brandy from up to a 100 different barrels. Because most brandies have not spent 50 years in the barrel, which would naturally reduce their alcohol contents to the traditional 40%, the blends are diluted with distilled water until they reach the proper alcohol content. Sugar, to simulate age in young brandies, is added along with a little caramel to obtain a uniform color consistency across the entire production run. The resulting product can cost anywhere from $25 to $500 or even more for very rare brandy.

Mass-produced brandy

1. Mass-produced brandy, other than having the same alcohol content, has very little in common with fine brandy. Both start with wine, though the mass-produced brandies are likely to be made from table grape varieties like the Thompson Seedless rather than from fine wine grapes. Instead of the painstaking double distillation in small batches, mass-produced brandies are made via fractional distillation in column stills. Column stills are sometimes called continuous stills as raw material is continuously poured into the top while the final product and wastes continuously come out of the side and bottom.
2. A column still is about 30-ft (9-m) high and contains a series of horizontal, hollow baffles that are interconnected. Hot wine is poured into the top of the column while steam is run through the hollow baffles; the steam and wine do not mix directly. The alcohol and other low boiling point liquids in the wine evaporate. The vapors rise while the non-alcoholic liquids fall. As the still is cooler at the top, the rising vapors eventually get to a part of the still where they will condense, each type of vapor at a temperature just above its own boiling point.
3. Once they have recondensed, the liquids begin to move downward in the still. As they fall, they boil again. This process of boiling and condensing, rising and falling, happens over and over again in the column. The various components of the wine fraction and collect in the column where the temperature is just below the boiling point of that component. This allows the ethyl alcohol condensate to be bled out of the column at the height where it collects. The resulting product is a pure spirit, colorless, odorless, and tasteless, with an alcohol content of about 96.5%. At 96.5% alcohol, it can be used to fuel automobiles. It can be diluted and called vodka or diluted and flavored with juniper berries and called gin.
4. Mass-produced brandies are also aged in oak casks and pick up some flavors from them. Like its fine counterpart, the brandies are blended, diluted to around 40% alcohol, and bottled.

Quality Control

The quality control process for fine brandies involves trained tasters with years of experience sampling brandy. A large cognac house might have 10,000 barrels of brandy in its cellars, each of which must be tasted annually. Hence, most of the brandy "tasting" involves only smelling, as tasting several hundred barrels of brandy in a day would result in alcohol poisoning. The tasters usually "taste" each of the barrels at least once a year to assess how it is aging and to evaluate it for its blending qualities. Brandies that pick up off-flavors during distillation are discarded.

As mass-produced brandies are manufactured to be odorless and tasteless, the only real quality control required is to check their alcohol content. Because alcohol is less dense than water, the alcohol content of brandy can be checked with a hydrometer. A hydrometer is a glass float with a rod sticking out the top of it. The rod is calibrated so that a line on the rod will be exactly at the liquid surface if the hydrometer is floating in water. As alcohol is less dense than water, the hydrometer will sink deeper in alcohol than it will in water. By calibrating the rod scale with different blends of known alcohol content, it can be used to determine the percentage of alcohol in a water/alcohol mixture.

Byproducts/Waste

The waste products from brandy production include the solids from the wine production and the liquids left over from the still. The solids from brandy production can be used for animal feed or be composted. The liquid wastes are usually allowed to evaporate in shallow ponds. This allows the residual alcohol in the waste to go into the atmosphere, but the United States Environmental Protection Agency does not consider this to be a major pollutant source.

The Future

For the foreseeable future, the vast bulk of all the brandies will be produced in column stills. However, there is an increasing interest in luxury goods throughout the world. Not just fine brandies, but Calvados (fine apple brandy) and slivovitz (fine plum brandy) are getting increasing amounts of attention from collectors and ordinary citizens.

Where to Learn More

Books

Faith, Nicholas. Cognac. Boston: David R. Godine Publisher, 1987.

Harper, William. Origins and Rise of the British Distillery. Lewiston, U.K.: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1999.

Periodicals

Kummer, Corby. "Don't Call It Cognac." Atlantic Magazine (December 1995).

Other

United States Environmental Protection Agency. Emission Factor Documentation for AP-42, Section 9.12.2, Wines and Brandy. (October 1995).

[Article by: Jeff Raines]

A spirit distilled from wine, and containing 37-44% (most usually 40%) alcohol by volume. The name is derived from the German brandtwein, meaning burnt wine, corrupted to brandy wine. First produced in 1300 at the Montpellier medical school by Arnaud de Villeneuve.

The age of brandy is generally designated as 3-star (3-5 years old before bottling); VSOP (very special old pale, aged 4-10 or more years, the name indicating that it has not been heavily coloured with caramel); Napoleon (premium blend aged 6-20 years); XO, Extraordinary Old (Extra or Grand Reserve, possibly 50 years old). Cognac and Armagnac are brandies made in defined regions of France.

Fruit brandies are either distilled from fruit wines (e.g. plum and apple brandies) or are prepared by soaking fruit in brandy (e.g. cherry and apricot brandies). See also eau de vie; marc.

A liquor distilled from wine or other fermented (see fermentation) fruit juice. The name "brandy" comes from the Dutch brandewijn ("burned (distilled) wine"), referring to the technique of heating the wine during distillation. A number of sub-categories fall under the broad definition of brandy including fruit brandy, grappa, marc, pomace and eau-de-vie (eau-de-vie de vin is French for brandy). Brandies made from apples and grapes are generally aged in wood, which contributes flavor and color. Those made from other fruits are less likely to be aged in this fashion and are typically colorless. The finest brandies traditionally come from cognac followed by those from armagnac-both in southwestern France. See also aguardente; applejack; apricot brandy; aqua vitea; cachaca; calvados; kirsch; metaxa; pisco; raki; slivovitz.

A liquor distilled (see distillation) from wine and aged in wood, which contributes flavor and color. The finest of all brandies is cognac closely followed by armagnac. The name brandy comes from the Dutch brandewijin, meaning "burned (distilled) wine." Brandy can also be made from fermented fruits other than grapes (such as the apple-based Calvados), but they are generally qualified by adding the name of the fruit, as in apple brandy. The term brandy by itself generally refers to those made from grapes.

n.

A cordial composed of one part thunder-and-lightning, one part remorse, two parts bloody murder, one part death-hell-and-the- grave and four parts clarified Satan. Dose, a headful all the time. Brandy is said by Dr. Johnson to be the drink of heroes. Only a hero will venture to drink it.

For other uses, see Brandy (disambiguation).

Cognac brandy in a typical brandy snifter

Brandy (from brandywine, derived from Dutch brandewijn—"burnt wine") ^[1] is a spirit produced by distilling wine, the wine having first been produced by fermenting grapes. Brandy generally contains 36%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink. While some brandies are aged in wooden casks, most are coloured with caramel colouring to imitate the effect of such aging.

Brandy can also be made from fermented fruit (i.e., other than grapes) and from pomace.^[2]

Contents 1 Types of brandy 1.1 Grape brandy 1.2 Fruit brandy 1.3 Pomace brandy 2 Distillation 3 Aging 4 Labelling 5 Pot stills vs. tower stills 6 European Union definition 7 History 8 Usage 8.1 Cooking 8.2 Beverages 9 See also 10 References

Types of brandy

There are three main types of brandy. The term "brandy" denotes grape brandy if the type is not otherwise specified.

Grape brandy

Grape brandy is produced by the distillation of fermented grapes.

Brandy de Jerez barrels aging

• American grape brandy is almost always from California.^[2] Popular brands include Christian Brothers, Coronet, E&J, Korbel, Paul Masson and J. Bavet.
• Armagnac is made from grapes of the Armagnac region in Southwest of France (Gers, Landes, Lot-et-Garonne). It is single-continuous distilled in a copper still and aged in oaken casks from Gascony or Limousin. Armagnac was the first distilled spirit in France. Armagnacs have a specificity: they offer vintage qualities. Popular brands are Darroze, Baron de Sigognac, Larressingle, Delord, Laubade, Gélas and Janneau.
• Brandy de Jerez is a brandy that originates from vineyards around Jerez de la Frontera in southern Spain.^[3]It is used in some sherries and is also available as a separate product. It has a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). The traditional production method has three characteristics: (1) Aged in American oaken casks with a capacity of 500 litres, previously having contained sherry. (2) The use of the traditional aging system of Criaderas and Soleras. (3) Aged exclusively within the municipal boundaries of Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María, and Sanlúcar de Barrameda in the province of Cádiz.^[4]
• Cognac comes from the Cognac region in France,^[2] and is double distilled using pot stills. Popular brands include Hine, Martell, Rémy Martin, Hennessy, Ragnaud-Sabourin, Delamain and Courvoisier.
• Pisco is produced in Peru and Chile.
• Portugal: Lourinhã, located in western Portugal, is one of the few brandy-making areas, besides Cognac, Armagnac and Jerez, that have received appellation status.
• South African grape brandies are, by law, made almost exactly as in Cognac, using a double-distillation process in copper pot stills followed by aging in oak barrels for a minimum of three years. Because of this, South African brandies are of a very high quality.^[5]
• Other countries: Grape brandy is also produced in many other countries, including Armenia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine. Cyprus brandy differs from other varieties in that its alcohol concentration is only 32% ABV.

The European Union legally enforces Cognac as the exclusive name for brandy produced and distilled in the Cognac area of France, and Armagnac from the Gascony area of France, using traditional techniques. Since these are considered PDO, they refer not just to styles of brandy but brandies from a specific region, i.e. a brandy made in California in a manner identical to the method used to make cognac, and which tastes similar to cognac, cannot be so called in Europe as it is not from the Cognac region of France.

Grape brandy is best when it is drunk at room temperature from a tulip-shaped glass or a snifter. Often it is slightly warmed by holding the glass cupped in the palm or by gently heating it. However, heating it may cause the alcohol vapor to become too strong, so that the aromas are overpowered.^{[citation needed]}

Brandy, like whisky and red wine, has more pleasant aromas and flavors at a lower temperature, e.g., 16 °C (61 °F). In most homes, this would imply that brandy should be cooled rather than heated for maximum enjoyment. Furthermore, alcohol (which makes up 40% of a typical brandy) becomes thin as it is heated (and more viscous when cooled). Thus, cool brandy produces a fuller and smoother mouthfeel and less of a "burning" sensation.^[6]

Fruit brandy

A bottle of Calvados, a French fruit brandy made from apples

Fruit brandies are distilled from fruits other than grapes. Apples, plums, peaches, cherries, eldberberries, raspberries, blackberries, and apricots are the most commonly used fruits. Fruit brandy usually contains 40% to 45% ABV. It is usually colorless and is customarily drank chilled or over ice.

• Applejack is an American apple brandy, made from the distillation of hard cider. It is often freeze distilled.
• Buchu brandy is South African and flavoured with extracts from Agathosma species.
• Calvados is an apple brandy from the French region of Lower Normandy.^[2] It is double distilled from fermented apples.
• Damassine is a prune (the fruit of the Damassinier tree) brandy from the Jura Mountains of Switzerland
• Coconut brandy is a brandy made from the sap of coconut flowers.
• Eau-de-vie is a general French term for fruit brandy (or even grape brandy that is not qualified as Armagnac or Cognac, including pomace brandy).
• German Schnaps is fruit brandy produced in Germany or Austria.
• Kirschwasser is a fruit brandy made from cherries.^[2]
• Kukumakranka brandy is South African and flavoured with the ripe fruit of the Kukumakranka.
• Palinka is a traditional Hungarian fruit brandy.^[2] It can be made from any kind of fruit, most often from plums, apricots, elderberries, pears, or cherries. Less commonly, it is made from apples, peaches, or walnuts.
• Poire Williams (Williamine) is made from Bartlett pears (also known as Williams pears).
• Rakia is a type of fruit brandy produced in Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia; it may be made from plums, apples, quinces, pears, apricots, cherries, mulberries, grapes, or walnuts.
• Slivovice is a strong fruit brandy made from plums; by law, it must contain at least 52% ABV. It is produced in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland.
• Slivovitz is a fruit brandy made from plums.^[2] It is a traditional drink in Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia. Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia.
• Šljivovica (pronounced: Shlyeewoweetza) is plum fruit brandy made in Serbia.
• Tuica is a clear Romanian fruit brandy made from plums, apples, pears, apricots, mulberries, peaches, quinces, or mixtures of these. Romania and Moldova also produce a grape brandy called vin ars (burnt wine) or divin.

Pomace brandy

Pomace brandy is produced by fermentation and distillation of the grape skins, seeds, and stems that remain after grapes have been pressed to extract their juice (which is then used to make wine). Examples include

• Italian grappa,
• French marc,
• Serbian komovica,
• Bulgarian grozdova,
• Georgian chacha,
• Hungarian törkölypálinka,
• Cretan tsikoudia
• Cypriot Zivania ^[2] and
• Spanish orujo.

Most of the pomace brandies are neither aged, nor coloured.

Distillation

A batch distillation typically works as follows:

Wine with an alcohol concentration of 8% to 12% ABV and high acidity is boiled in a pot still. Vapors of alcohol, water, and numerous aromatic components rise upward and are collected in a condenser coil, where they become a liquid again. Because alcohol and the aromatic components vaporize at a lower temperature than water, the concentration of alcohol in the condensed liquid (the distillate) is higher than in the original wine.

After one distillation, the distillate, called "low wine," will contain roughly 30% alcohol (ethanol) by volume. The low wine is then distilled a second time. The first 1% or so of distillate that's produced, called the "head," has an alcohol concentration of about 83% and an unpleasant odor, so it is discarded (generally, mixed in with another batch of low wine for future use). The distillation process continues, yielding a distillate of approximately 70% alcohol (called the "heart"), which is what will be consumed as brandy. The portion of low wine that remains after distillation, called the "tail," will be mixed into another batch of low wine for future use.

Distillation does not simply enhance the alcohol content of wine. The heat under which the product is distilled and the material of the still (usually copper) cause chemical reactions to take place during distillation. This leads to the formation of numerous new volatile aroma components, changes in relative amounts of aroma components in the wine, and the hydrolysis of components such as esters.

Aging

Brandy is produced using one of three aging methods:

• No aging: Most pomace brandy and some fruit brandy is not aged before bottling. The resulting product is typically clear and colorless.
• Single barrel aging: Brandies with a natural golden or brown color are aged in oak casks. Some brandies have caramel color added to simulate the appearance of barrel aging.
• Solera process: Some brandies, particularly those from Spain, are aged using the solera system.

Labelling

Brandy has a rating system to describe its quality and condition; these indicators can usually be found near the brand name on the label:

• A.C.: aged two years in wood.
• V.S.: "Very Special" or 3-Star, aged at least three years in wood.
• V.S.O.P.: "Very Special Old Pale" or 5-Star, aged at least five years in wood.
• X.O.: "Extra Old", Napoleon or Vieille Reserve, aged at least six years, Napoleon at least four years.
• Vintage: Stored in the cask until the time it is bottled with the label showing the vintage date.
• Hors d'age: These are too old to determine the age, although ten years plus is typical, and are usually of great quality.

In the case of Brandy de Jerez Regulatory Council classifies it according to:

• Brandy de Jerez Solera – one year old.
• Brandy de Jerez Solera Reserva – three years old.
• Brandy de Jerez Solera Gran Reserva – ten years old.

Pot stills vs. tower stills

Cognac and South African pot still brandy are examples of brandy produced in batches using pot stills (batch distillation). Many American brandies use fractional distillation in tower stills to perform their distillation. Special pot stills with a fractionation section on top are used for Armagnac.

European Union definition

The European Union has established its own legal definition of the term “brandy”:^[7]

5. Brandy or Weinbrand

(a) Brandy or Weinbrand is a spirit drink:

(i) produced from wine spirit, whether or not wine distillate has been added, distilled at less than 94.8% vol., provided that that distillate does not exceed a maximum of 50% of the alcoholic content of the finished product,

(ii) matured for at least one year in oak receptacles or for at least six months in oak casks with a capacity of less than 1000 litres,

(iii) containing a quantity of volatile substances equal to or exceeding 125 grams per hectolitre of 100% vol. alcohol, and derived exclusively from the distillation or redistillation of the raw materials used,

(iv) having a maximum methanol content of 200 grams per hectolitre of 100% vol. alcohol.

(b) The minimum alcoholic strength by volume of brandy or Weinbrand shall be 36%.

(c) No addition of alcohol as defined in Annex I(5), diluted or not, shall take place.

(d) Brandy or Weinbrand shall not be flavoured. This shall not exclude traditional production methods.

(e) Brandy or Weinbrand may only contain added caramel as a means to adapt colour.

This definition formally excludes fruit brandy, pomace brandy, and even unaged grape brandy. The same European Union regulation defines the names of these excluded spirits as fruit spirit, grape marc spirit, and wine spirit. The German term Weinbrand is equivalent to the English term “brandy”, but outside the German-speaking countries it is used only for brandy from Austria and Germany. In Poland, brandy is sometimes called winiak, from wino (wine).

History

The origins of brandy are clearly tied to the development of distillation. Concentrated alcoholic beverages were known in ancient Greece and Rome and may have a history going back to ancient Babylon. Brandy, as it is known today, first began to appear in the 12th century and became generally popular in the 14th century.

Initially wine was distilled as a preservation method and as a way to make the wine easier for merchants to transport. It was also thought that wine was originally distilled to lessen the tax which was assessed by volume. The intent was to add the water removed by distillation back to the brandy shortly before consumption. It was discovered that after having been stored in wooden casks, the resulting product had improved over the original distilled spirit.^[2] In addition to removing water, the distillation process leads to the formation and decomposition of numerous aroma compounds, fundamentally altering the composition of the distillate from its source. Non-volatile substances such as pigments, sugars, and salts remain behind in the still. As a result, the taste of the distillate may be quite unlike that of the original source.

As described in the 1728 edition of Cyclopaedia, the following method was used to distill brandy:

• A cucurbit was filled half full of the liquor from which brandy was to be drawn and then raised with a little fire until about one sixth part was distilled, or until that which falls into the receiver was entirely flammable. This liquor, distilled only once, was called spirit of wine or brandy. Purified by another distillation (or several more), this was then called spirit of wine rectified. The second distillation was made in balneo mariae and in a glass cucurbit, and the liquor was distilled to about one half the quantity. This was further rectified—as long as the operator thought necessary—to produce brandy.^[8]

To shorten these several distillations, which were long and troublesome, a chemical instrument was invented that reduced them to a single distillation. To test the purity of the rectified spirit of wine, a portion was ignited. If the entire contents were consumed without leaving any impurity behind, then the liquor was good. Another, better test involved putting a little gunpowder in the bottom of the spirit. If the gunpowder took fire when the spirit was consumed, then the liquor was good.^[8]

As most brandies are distilled from grapes, the regions of the world producing excellent brandies have roughly paralleled those areas producing grapes for viniculture. At the end of the 19th Century, the western European market—and by extension their overseas empires—was dominated by French and Spanish brandies, and eastern Europe was dominated by brandies from the Black Sea region, including Bulgaria, the Crimea, and Georgia. In 1880, David Saradjishvili founded his Cognac Factory in Tbilisi, Georgia (then part of the Russian Empire) which was a crossroads for Turkish, Central Asian, and Persian traderoutes. Armenian and Georgian brandies (always called cognacs in the era) were considered some of the best in the world, often beating their French competitors at the International Expositions in Paris and Brussels in the early 1900s. The storehouses of the Romanov Court in St. Petersburg were regarded as the largest collections of cognacs and wines in the world—much of it from the Transcaucasus region of Georgia. During the October Revolution of 1917, upon the storming of the Winter Palace, the Bolshevik Revolution actually paused for a week or so as the rioters engorged on the substantial stores of cognac and wines. The Russian market was always a huge brandy-consuming region, and while much of it was homegrown, much was imported. The patterns of bottles follow that of western European norm. Throughout the Soviet era, the production of brandy remained a source of pride for the communist regime, and they continued to produce some excellent varieties—most famously the Jubilee Brandies of 1967, 1977, and 1987. Remaining bottles of these productions are highly sought after, not simply for their quality, but for their historical significance.

Usage

Brandy serves a variety of culinary uses.

Cooking

• Flavored brandy is added to desserts, including cake and pie toppings, which enhances the flavor of the dessert .
• Flavored brandy is also commonly added to apple dishes.
• Brandy is a common deglazing liquid in making pan sauces for steak or other meats

Beverages

Brandy may be served neat (by itself) or on the rocks (with ice). It is often added to other beverages to create several popular mixed drinks. Examples of mixed drinks with brandy include a "Brandy Alexander", a "Brandy Sour", and a "Blackbird" (blackberry brandy mixed with Coca-Cola).

See also

• Batch distillation
• Cut brandy
• Fine
• Fortified wine
• Himbeergeist
• Singani

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brandy

1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 1989. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.. 2007. 
3. ^ Lichine, Alexis. Alexis Lichine’s New Encyclopedia of Wines & Spirits, 5th edition, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987). Page 464.
4. ^ Bulk Brandy Producer, Rudolf Prehn GmbH
5. ^ South Africa wins Best Brandy in the World
6. ^ The History of Brandy
7. ^ Official Journal of the European Union, 13 February 2008, 39/30–39/31. http://www.mee.government.bg/ind/doc/LexUriServ.pdf
8. ^ ^{a b} This article incorporates content from the 1728 Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - brandy, cognac
v. tr. - tilsætte brandy

idioms:

• brandy snap    kage med cognacsmag, ingefærkiks

Nederlands (Dutch)
brandewijn, cognac

Français (French)
n. - brandy, cognac
v. tr. - mélanger/conserver (dans du cognac), parfumer au cognac

idioms:

• brandy snap    galette au gingembre, (Culin) cornet croquant

Deutsch (German)
n. - Branntwein, Weinbrand
v. - mit Branntwein mischen, mit Branntwein erfrischen

idioms:

• brandy snap    Röllchen mit Sahne und Ingwergeschmack

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μπράντι, κονιάκ

idioms:

• brandy snap    γεμιστό μπισκότο

Italiano (Italian)
acquavite di vino

idioms:

• brandy snap    panpepato

Português (Portuguese)
n. - conhaque (m)

idioms:

• brandy snap    tipo de bolachinha

Русский (Russian)
коньяк, бренди

idioms:

• brandy snap    бисквит

Español (Spanish)
n. - aguardiente, coñac
v. tr. - conservar en aguardiente, mezclar o saborear con aguardiente

idioms:

• brandy snap    galletitas de jengibre rellenas con crema

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - konjak

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
白兰地酒, 用白兰地酒调制

idioms:

• brandy snap    白兰地酒小脆饼

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 白蘭地酒
v. tr. - 用白蘭地酒調製

idioms:

• brandy snap    白蘭地酒小脆餅

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 브랜디
v. tr. - ~에 브랜디를 섞다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ブランデー

idioms:

• brandy snap    ブランデースナップ

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مشروب روحي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮יין שרף, ברנדי‬
v. tr. - ‮יין שרף, ברנדי, הגיש יין שרף, תיבל או ערבב ביין שרף‬

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