PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE BRANDY

Brandy is spirit distilled from fruit. Juice, pulp and skin from any kind of fruit that will
ferment may be used in different ways to produce brandy. The name comes from the
Dutch word Brandewijn, meaning burnt wine from the process of boiling wine to
distil it.

The most familiar brandies come from grape wine. Wine brandy is distilled and usually
aged in oak barrels, a process which mellows the spirit and adds colour, aroma and
flavour to it. Provided the spirit its self is of a good quality, the longer it remains in wood
the finer it is likely to become. However, after about 60 years even the best get too
woody and are transferred to large glass jars.

An age statement on the bottle gives an idea as to the quality, for example 2 years old is
very young, 10 12 years should mean good brandy. Some countries have a coded
system like 3-star, VSOP etc like they have in France. All serious brandy-producing
countries have legal guidelines for these coded systems. Ages must also refer only to
time spent in wood, since spirits, unlike many wines, do not improve in the bottle.

A type of brandy is also made from the mass of grape skins and stalks left behind after
grapes have been pressed to make wine. This is called "Pomace Brandy" and, although it
is an acquired taste, it is widely popular. It has the merit of carrying the fresh aromas
particular to the grapes from which it has been distilled, and is thus often drunk very
young ( E.g. six months old ) with no wood ageing. Italian Grappa and French Marc are
the best-known examples of pomace brandy. In France the word marc is usually
followed by the vineyard region where the grapes used in its making were grown.
Grappa is recognised around the world, whereas marc is only really of local importance.

Brandy produced from fruit other than grapes is called, predictably, fruit brandy. Many
different regional fruits are used all over the globe to produce fruit brandies. Mirabelle
and slivovic are plum brandies, poire William is made from pears, apple brandy from
apples etc etc. Some fruit brandies however hide behind other names, such as applejack
in the US and calvados in Normandy, which are both apple brandies.

Please note that natural fruit distillates are essentially dry in style, so liqueurs with names
like apricot brandy and cherry brandy are misleading, as these are not brandies but
sweetened fruit essences mixed with silent spirit. Kirsch on the other hand is a true
cherry brandy distilled from fermented cherries.