The World of Wine & Spirits

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

Italian grappa,

French marc,

Portuguese aguardente Bagaceira,

Serbian komovica,

Bulgarian grozdova,

Georgian chacha,

Hungarian törkölypálinka,

Cretan tsikoudia

Cypriot Zivania and

Spanish orujo,

Macedonian komova.

FRUIT BRANDY

# 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. 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.

# Kukumakranka brandy is South African and flavoured with the ripe fruit of the Kukumakranka.

# Palinka is a traditional Hungarian fruit brandy. It can only be made of fruits from Hungary, such as plums, apricots, peaches, elderberries, pears, apples or cherries.

# 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 Serbia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland.

# Slivovitz is a fruit brandy made from plums. It is a traditional drink in Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia. Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia.

# Šlivka (pronounced: Shlyeewca) is plum fruit brandy made in Macedonia.

# 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

 

FRUIT BRANDIES

Fruit brandies are distilled from fruits other than grapes. Apples, plums, peaches, cherries, elderberries, 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 drunk chilled or over ice.

OTHER GRAPE BRANDIES

Armagnac:  Armagnac is made from grapes of the Armagnac region in Southwest of France. 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.

American Brandy: American grape brandy is almost always from California. Popular brands include Christian Brothers, Coronet, E&J, Korbel, Paul Masson and J. Bavet.

Brandy de Jerez: Brandy de Jerez is a brandy that originates from vineyards around Jerez de la Frontera in southern Spain. It is used in some sherries and is also available as a separate product.    

TYPES OF BRANDY

1. Grape Brandy

Grape brandy is produced by the distillation of fermented grapes. 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.

v     COGNAC: Cognac comes from the Cognac region in France, and is double distilled using pot stills. Popular brands include Hine, Martell, RémyMartin, Hennessy, Ragnaud-Sabourin, Delamain and Courvoisier. The brandy abbreviatios are as follows:

VO: Very Old, 10-15 years

 VOP:  Very Old Pale, 15-20 years

 VSO: Very Superior Old, 20 -25 years

 VSOP: Very Superior Old Pale, 25-40 years

 XO: Extra Old, 50-70 years

 Age of Cognac, according to stars:

* * * * * 15-20 years

* * * * 10-15 years

* * * 7-10 years

* * 5-6 years

* 3-4 years 

PRODUCTION PROCESS FO BRANDY

PRODUCTION PROCESS FO BRANDY

# 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%.

# 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.

# 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.

# 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.

# 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.

 # 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."

# 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.

# 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

 

BRANDY

Brandy (from brandywine, derived from Dutch brandewijn—"burnt wine")  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 coloring to imitate the effect of such aging.

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