WorkBook 2018 F. Paul Pacult - Spirit Journal, Inc - The Brandy Authority
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WorkBook 2018
F. Paul Pacult
Spirit Journal, Inc.
thebrandyauthority.com
©2018 SPIRIT JOURNAL, INC. & F. PAUL PACULT
THE BRANDY AUTHORITY (TBA) MISSION Operated by New York-based Spirit Journal, Inc. and supported by 12 international Brandy distiller members, THE BRANDY AUTHORITY provides unbiased, credible, and cutting- edge information about all Brandy categories through its website (thebrandyauthority.com), its WorkBook, and the six annual educational seminars directed to beverage trade and media audiences. THE BRANDY AUTHORITY’s dynamic, informative, and entertaining seminars include unique blind tastings of TBA’s member brands. The six markets to be visited by TBA in 2018 are New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas. This independent educational initiative is led by award-winning author, journalist, and educator F. Paul Pacult. As a Life Member of Compagnie des Mousquetaires d’Armagnac (Gascony, France), the 2011 recipient of International Cognac Personality of the Year Award, the leading consultant to the Brandy industry, the master of ceremonies and headlining presenter at the groundbreaking California Brandy Summit in April 2017, and the reviewer of over 4,500 Brandies in F. Paul Pacult’s Spirit Journal, Paul is the ideal expert to lead hospitality trade audiences through the labyrinthine, frequently confounding world of Brandy. Through entertaining seminars bolstered by three decades of Brandy-tasting experience, Paul clears the clouds of confusion about Brandy and illustrates with clarity and humor why Brandy deserves its status as one of the world’s most beloved distilled adult beverages. The official website of THE BRANDY AUTHORITY is thebrandyauthority.com. 2 thebrandyauthority.com
All About Brandy
This WorkBook has been created to accompany and enhance
THE BRANDY AUTHORITY seminars and blind tastings and to provide
attendees with a comprehensive overview of the Brandy category.
Before we proceed, please recognize one important factor: Brandy is an ancient category,
revered for centuries wherever grapes and fruit have been cultivated and wine has been made.
Brandy has been produced from grapes grown in California’s vast Central Valley and coastal counties; the prime
vineyards of Peru and Chile; the fabled vineyards of southwest France; the apple and pear orchards of Normandy;
every one of Italy’s twenty regions; to Spain’s Andalucia and Catalonia regions as well as from the far-flung vine-
yards of Germany, Cyprus, Israel, Georgia, Mexico, Canada, and Armenia. In many societies, Brandy has been an
integral lubricant of the social and cultural histories, in every corner of the world since the Late Middle Ages.
The skill of distillation, meaning in general terms the boiling, vaporization, and cooling of the mists
of fermented wine or beer resulting in crude high alcohol “spirits”, has been practiced since before the time of
Christ. Chinese and Indian alchemists, physicians, and scientists were probably the first regular practicioners of
this mysterious art. Next came the great Mediterranean societies of Greece and Egypt. Priests of the Nile River
civilization learned distillation to make cosmetics.
These earliest practices, utilizing a wide array of small fundamental pot stills, were often
included in the spiritual pursuits of alchemists searching for magically powered potions or pathways to the ether.
Other distillers, especially those of Europe and Persia, were searching for medicinal elixirs to relieve common
ailments such as dyspepsia, arthritis and tooth and gum maladies.
Most historians now agree that the first formalization of distilling practice and institutional instruction in
Europe came in the 12th century via The Salerno School of Medicine, located in the Italian port city of Salerno.
The 13th and 14th centuries witnessed a steady expansion of European distilling expertise and application as
the Roman Catholic Church clergy and city-state aristocracy glommed onto the distilling concept, initially for
medicinal and mystical purposes, then later for recreational reasons.
According to findings from numerous sources, including Scientific American and The Biblical Society of
Great Britain, many historical records point to Brandy in the form of unaged, clear distillate being made in France
as early as the late 1200s, most probably by Raymond Lully, an able assistant of noted “celebrity” physician of
the era, Arnaldus de Villa Nova. Reportedly, Arnaldus de Villa Nova first dabbled in distilling grain- and fruit-
based spirits at the end of the 1200s, creating aqua ardens, or burning water, even treating Pope Clement V in
1299 with distilled grape wine. (Sources: A General View of the Writings of Linnaeus by Richard Pulteney, Cambridge
Library Collection, 1805 and Brandy: A Global History by Becky Sue Epstein, Reaktion Books Ltd.)
Another report in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Alcohol: Social, Cultural, and Historical Perspectives has the religiously
fervent Lully believing that Brandy was a gift from God. He wouldn’t have been alone in thinking that. In that pivotal
era, the years from 1300-1350, for the development of distillation in Europe, Villa Nova and Lully called their
distillates eau-de-vie, French for “water of life”. Other period experimenters, often Christian clergy in abbeys and
monasteries, refered to their distillates in the Latin version of “water of life”, aqua vitae.
thebrandyauthority.com 3
The English word “Brandy” didn’t come into the lexicon until later. Brandy is derived from two
mid-1600s Middle Dutch words for “burnt wine,” branden (burn, distill) and wijn (wine). They evolved
into “brandiwijn”, which was derived from the earlier Dutch terms gebrande wijn. Brandy, the term,
is employed to describe any potable alcoholic liquid that is distilled either from fermented fruit
juice (wine), most specifically, grapes, plums, berries, pears, apples, pineapples, and cherries, or grape pomace,
meaning the leftover skins, seeds, and pulp from vinification.
The 16th century Dutch connection dawned due to the commercial enterprises centered in Holland that
shipped wine primarily from southwestern France to European, colonial, and British ports-of-call. The barrelled
wine had been fortifed with distilled spirits in order to preserve the quality of the wine during the rigors of
oceanic transport. The idea was to dilute the wine with water back to ordinary wine levels of alcohol when the
wine arrived at the designated port. What the shipment receivers kept discovering was that the wines fortified with
spirits were even more scrumptious than the wine itself. This accidental development gave rapid and sustained
rise to the Brandy industry, particularly in France’s Gascony and Charente regions.
CATEGORICALLY SPEAKING
As a distilled spirit category, Brandy encompasses some of the most illustrious and historically important distil-
lates civilization has ever created, among them Cognac, Calvados, Armagnac, Pisco, Grappa, Stravecchio, Brandy
de Jerez, Applejack, Barrack Palinka, Tuica, Macierira, Kirschwasser, Slivovitz, Marc and scores of fruit Brandies/
Eaux-de-vie. Virtually every wine and fruit producing region the world over produces some form of Brandy. To
comprehend the scope of this huge international spirits category, it is best presented by the base material, mean-
ing either grapes or other fruits.
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GRAPE BRANDIES
A. COGNAC–SW FRANCE
It is fitting that we begin with the most famous of the world’s grape-based Brandies, Cognac, born in France’s
southwest district known as Poitou-Charente. This enthralling region includes the Atlantic coast, highlighted by
the Bay of Biscay and the coastal city of La Rochelle, and the demarcated Brandy-making district, Cognac. Poitou-
Charente rests south of the Loire Valley, west of Limousin, which is famous for its oak forests that provide much
of the wood for French barrel-making, and north of Aquitaine, a gateway to northern Spain and the home of the
hallowed wine mecca, Bordeaux.
>>Thumbnail History:
Cognac has been produced in France’s Charente River basin since the early 17th century. Surprisingly to most
people, Cognac has always been an export spirit. In fact, the first copper pot stills, or alembics, installed in the
Charente district were put there by clever Dutch traders who strove to concentrate the wines of the region by for-
tifying them with small doses of distilled spirits. The Dutch knew that when you either added unaged grape spirits
to wine, or reduced them altogether to high-alcohol spirits, wines better withstood the rigors of maritime travel.
By the mid-1600s, French winemakers embraced the fundamental technology of distillation and advanced
it further by discovering that a second distillation purified the eau-de-vie even more. About the same time they
made a second major discovery: purposeful wood barrel maturation. When allowed to rest for extended periods
within the confines of oak barrels constructed from nearby Limousin and Tronçais forest oak, the eau-de-vie
turned a wheat field yellow color and, most importantly, the flavor and texture both became fuller and mellower.
The biochemical interaction of the fresh spirits with the inherent compounds in the oak dramatically improved
the virgin eau-de-vie. In fact, the longer the eau-de-vie rested in the casks, the smoother and more refined it
became.
A typical carefully spaced vineyard in Cognac.
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All through the 18th century, pivotal markets for Cognac were established in Holland, England, Russia, and
the Scandinavian countries. Shipped and then stored in barrels, Cognac evolved into a staple beverage around
much of western and northern Europe and Britain. In the mid-1800s, producers began to package their Cognacs
in bottles for easier shipping across Europe. By doing so, France’s Cognac producers propogated a bevy of packag-
ing industries, including glass factories, printers, and cork manufacturers who rushed to supply the demand. This
was in addition to the region’s grape growers and cooperages.
By 1860-1870, the Cognac region boasted almost 280,000 hectares, or roughly 692,000 acres, of vine-
yards. Then circa 1870, disaster struck when a rapacious grapevine-destroying louse, phylloxera vastatrix, first
appeared. The ensuing devastation from 1870 to 1890 in the Cognac region was so thorough that by 1893 only
40,000 hectares (98,800 acres) of healthy vines remained. The recovery of Cognac’s prized vineyards, which were
painstakingly replanted with pest-proof vines developed in Texas, consumed the efforts of an entire generation.
Today in 2018, multiple safeguards are in place to protect the most important element of Cognac production, the
79,636 hectares of vines. Acknowledging the fact that the contemporary Cognac industry is a fraction as large as
it was in the 1860s, few Brandy authorities would disagree that the product itself has never been better or more
consistently elegant.
>>Cognac’s 6 Demarcated Crus:
The Poitou-Charente’s main topographical feature is the meandering River Charente, which crisscrosses the area
flowing southeast to northwest from Angoulême to the North Atlantic as it is fed by the Né, Antenne, and Seugne
rivers. The Charente-Maritime and the majority of the Charente departements, along with areas of the Dordogne
and Deux-Sèvres departements participate in the Brandy zones. The maritime-influenced climate affords warm,
humid summers and mild, damp winters. The total offically demarcated region is comprised of just over 1 million
hectares, or about 2,471,000 acres (1 hectare = 2.47105 acres). The actual space of this large area that is devoted
to vineyards is only 79,636 hectares (196,785 acres). This swath of illustrious real estate is divided into six distinct
grape-growing areas, known as “Crus”. Fully 95% of the 79,636 hectares are devoted to the production of white
wine for Cognac.
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These half-dozen growing areas were defined initially by soil types in 1860 by geologist Henri Coquand
and then, in 1938, were delimited and ratified by decree. The ratification established Grande Champagne, Petite
Champagne, Borderies, Fins Bois, Bons Bois, and Bois à Terroir (a.k.a. Bois Ordinaires). The Crus were given
their names once the forests were cleared to make way for vineyards in the early 1800s. The two Champagne dis-
tricts, Grande and Petite, along with Borderies are the most famous and the most productive districts. The trio of
“Bois” districts are larger in total area but not as renowned as the Champagnes and Borderies. Though of recent
note are the Cognacs hailing from Fins Bois, whose friable soils are strikingly reminiscent of those found in the
Champagnes.
Cognac is rarely born of a single eau-de-vie or a single growing area, but is most often a combination
of different ages and crus, sometimes up to a hundred of them. Cognac can likewise be made exclusively from one
particular “cru”, for example, 100% from “Grande Champagne”, but of different ages.
• Grande Champagne: Approximately 13,150 hectares of thin but sponge-like chalky
(calcareous) soil that rests upon Montmorillonite clay that captures then retains moisture.
The Grande Champagne cru surrounds the town of Segonzac. It produces exquisitely fine,
high-quality, long-lived Cognac. It is known as the Premier Cru du Cognac.
• Petite Champagne: 15,246 hectares of clay and compact chalky soils. Petite Champagne’s soil
is much of the same quality of Grande Champagne, but a touch lighter as are its eaux-de-vie.
Its vineyards cradle Grande Champagne, lying to the south-west and south-east.
• Borderies: Only 3,987 hectares of unique flinty soil on the plateau above Charente river. The
eau-de-vie has a slight nutty taste. Borderies, which wraps around the town of Burie (north-
west of City of Cognac), is the smallest of the crus in the terms of acreage. Eaux-de-vie from
Borderies mature faster than those from the Champagnes and have rich, flowery (violets),
frequently nut-like aromas.
• Fins Bois: 31,000 hectares of clay/chalky soils that are known as “groies” are similar to those
of the Champagne crus, except for their reddish hue and hard stones from the Jurassic Era.
A subtle flowery bouquet characterizes this eau-de-vie. The largest cru, Fins Bois is a low-
lying area that encircles the Champagnes and Borderies. It lies, approximately, in the triangle
between the towns of Rouilliac, Matha and Pons. Its eaux-de-vie have round, hearty, powerful
aromas with a salty touch of the maritime influence. This region is in the ascendency at the
moment and is worth keeping an eye on.
• Bons Bois: Less chalky but more sandy, coastal soil of 9,308 hectares that is well-reflected
in the eaux-de-vie. Bons Bois vineyards, encased by pine and chestnut forests, feature more
widely dispersed vine plantings that are often intermingled with other crops. This region is
not a major player in top-tier Cognac production.
• Bois à Terroir or Bois Ordinaires: The 1,101 hectares of soil devoted to grapes for Cognac are
influenced by the Atlantic climate. The Ile de Ré, an island off the coast, is considered in Bois
à Terroir and is famous for its salt-air tanginess (think Camus). Bons Bois and Bois Ordinaires
are the exterior crus heavily influenced by the climate of the Atlantic ocean, providing quick
maturing eaux-de-vie. They contribute less and less to the overall production of Cognac but
are, nevertheless, known to produce some interesting Cognacs.
• Fine Champagne: This special label designation is NOT a demarcation but rather is the
blending of Grande and Petite Champagne eaux-de-vie, with a minimum of 50% of Grande
Champagne. The House of Remy Martin is the leading producer of Fine Champagne.
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>>Production:
The three main grape varieties are Ugni Blanc (a.k.a. Trebbiano and 90+% of total plantings), Folle Blanche, and
Colombard. These grapes are resistant to mold so they can be harvested late into the season, normally throughout
October. Vines are typically planted 3 meters apart and produce quality grapes for 25-35 years. The majority of
grapes are mechanically harvested. The grapes are pressed in either basket plate or pneumatic bladder presses
immediately after being harvested to prevent premature fermentation.
Traditionally, 5 grams of yeast are added for every hectoliter of juice in 800 hectoliter tanks. Once the
biochemical process of yeast cells consuming sugar molecules kicks off, fermentation takes from 5 to 7 days,
finally producing very dry wines that are desirably high in acid and low in alcohol (8.5%-9%). These types of wines
are suitable for distillation. In Cognac, all the wines made from a particular harvest year, say 2018, must by law
be distilled by March 31, 2019. The addition of sugar to the wines (chaptalization) is strictly prohibited by law.
The grape pressing and fermentation are extremely instrumental to the final outcome of the eau-de-vie and are
therefore closely monitored for quality control purposes.
Grapes for making the wines for Cognac must by law be sourced from the six delimited regions of Poitou-
Charente and must be first fermented then double-distilled in traditional copper pot-stills, called Charentais
Alembics. Charentais stills cannot be larger than 690 gallons. Each distillation, or intense heating, takes roughly
12 hours is referred to as a “chauffe”. The first distillation, known as “brouillis”, creates a colorless, slightly turbid
liquid that ranges from 28%-32% alcohol. The brouillis is returned to the alembic for a second boiling and that
part of the process is called “la bonne chauffe”. The boiling pot capacity cannot exceed 30 hectoliters (1 hectoliter
= 26.4172 American gallons). The spirit comes off the second distillation between 70-72%.
The first high-alcohol liquid of the second distillation comes off the still and is called “the heads” and has
the highest alcohol content (around 80%). The heads are set aside to be redistilled. The following liquid is “the heart”,
meaning the best part (the center cut) of the second distillation and is drawn off the still to be aged in oak barrels. The
final portion, “the tails”, is redistilled in the next brouillis. The entire distillation process requires about 24 hours.
>>Maturation & Labeling Laws:
The fermented wine that
was distilled into eau-
de-vie can only turn into
Cognac by spending at least
two years in French white
oak barrels that originated
in either the Limousin or
Tronçais forests. Used wine
barrels from surrounding wine
regions are allowed, as well.
Barrels made from Limousin
oak are characterized as being
medium-grained, very hard,
and more porous than Tron-
çais, which is fine-grained,
softer and moderately porous.
The tannins of Tronçais are
Diagram of an alembic still.
notably lighter than those of
Limousin. French barrels for Cognac aging range from 270 liters to 450 liters. Yearly evaporation is approxi-
mately 2%. Casks are topped off every two to three years.
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Cognacs are identified on the bottle label by the codified use of designations (rati-
fied on August 23, 1983) based upon the length of aging in French white oak barrels. All Cognacs
are aged in Limousin or Tronçais oak barrels, for a minimum of two years, with other minimums
required for particular designations. Most Cognacs age for far longer than the two year minimum.
Many aging cellars in Cognac are subterranean. All hold humidity well in order to keep the barrel staves
from drying out, resulting in barrel collapse. During the maturation period (minimum is two years), the eau-de-
vie may be moved from barrel to barrel or from location to location. Evaporation consumes a minimum of 20
million barrels per year. Virtually all Cognac producers have stores of very old Cognacs in the section of their
cellars called “Paradis”. Cognacs up to a century old are held in tightly sealed glass jars, called demijohns, for use
in older blends.
All grape growing parcels must be registered with the Bureau National Interprofessionel du Cognac (BNIC).
The BNIC has the legal authority to monitor and certify any Cognac’s official age, starting with “Compte 00” for
eau-de-vie that was distilled after April 1. Compte 1 eau-de-vie is aging Cognac that has gone past its second April
1 but is not yet legally mature. Compte 2 is basically VS level Cognac, meaning that it spent a minimum of 24
months in French white oak barrels. The legal definitions are:
• VS (Very Special) and Three-Star Cognacs (Compte 2) contain eaux-de-vie that spent at least
two years/24 months in white oak barrels.
• VSOP (Very Superior Old Pale), Réserve Cognacs (Compte 4) contain eaux-de-vie that spent at
least four years/48 months in white oak barrels.
• Napoléon Cognacs (Compte 6) contain eaux-de-vie that spent at least six years/72 months in
white oak barrels.
• Hors d’Age, XO, and Extra Cognacs (Compte 10) contain eaux-de-vie that spent at least ten
years/120 months in white oak barrels (as of April, 2018).
• Vintage Cognacs are rare single harvest Brandies. So then, 1999 Vintage XO must be produced
from 100% grapes harvested in the autumn of 1999.
Cognac’s Art of Blending & Legal Additives:
The art of blending is the heart and soul of Cognac production. Highly skilled technicians called the maître de chai,
or master blender, lend the human touch to the evolution of nearly every Cognac. Given the responsibility of
maintaining a specific and pre-determined house style, the master blender, either alone or more typically with a
panel of experts, collects many eaux-de-vie from among the barrels at his/her disposal and creates the final blend
that must reflect the established personality of the particular house. The single link between the generations of
master blenders lies mostly with the old Cognacs in the Paradis, which are used as benchmarks and guides.
Master blenders in Cognac are legally allowed three compounds to be applied as additives: boisé, caramel,
and sugar. Caramel in minute doses is commonly added as a corrective measure for coloring. The dosage is so
minuscule that it never affects the final flavor. Sugar, preferably from beets that produce more neutral sweetness,
can likewise be legally added at 1.5 grams per liter to bring suppleness to the texture and amplification to the taste.
Most sugars are first married to Cognac and cask aged before they are used in blending. Boisé, easily the most
controversial of the three permitted additives, is a gooey, deep mahogany-colored compound produced by boil-
ing wood and then reducing the hot liquid. Boisé is utilized to advance the aging process in younger eaux-de-
vie and that’s precisely where the controversy lies. Fact is, most producers use boisé and proudly claim that the
quality of it is so high that it ends up being a significant factor in their Cognacs’ characters. Doubtless, the squabble
between Cognac purists and progressives will go on for decades. But, the fact remains that for the moment it is a
legal additive.
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B. ARMAGNAC–SW FRANCE
>> Thumbnail History:
While Cognac has since its inception been produced mostly as an export spirit, influenced as we saw by Dutch
merchants for foreign markets, Armagnac is considered by the French public as the grape Brandy of France.
Regrettably, Armagnac is sometimes erroneously perceived to be a kind of Cognac, which of course it is not.
While made from grapes like Cognac, Armagnac owns a different set of characteristics and criteria. First
of all, Armagnac hails from bucolic, sparsely populated Gascony, the land-locked district 75 miles south-east of
Bordeaux that’s world famous for foie gras, Blonde d’Aquitaine cattle, hearty country cuisine, verdent rolling
terrain, balmy climate, and 17th century novelist Alexandre Dumas’s immortal, swashbuckling characters: Athos,
Porthos and Aramis, a.k.a. The Three Musketeers.
Gascony, as a region, came into being in the First Millenium, circa 670 CE, when it was formed by
a tribe called the Vascones as the first Duchy of Vasconia. It later became the Duchy of Gascony. The Vascones, a
Roman era tribe, are considered to be the ancestors of present day Basques. The word “Armagnac” is believed to
be a derivative of Arminius, the chosen name of a medieval knight, originally called Hermann. Hermann lived in
Gascony. The initial written reference to the grape Brandy referred to as Armagnac is said to have come from 1310
CE by Franciscan cleric Vital Dufour, who in Latin wrote about 42 medicinal benefits of aygue Ardente, advising,
“To keep your health and stay on top form [drink Armagnac]”. Dufour’s manuscript, which was later published in
1531, is now part of the Vatican Library in Rome. It would not be inaccurate to claim that Armagnac introduced
the modern age of Brandy to the world.
Armagnac has always deserved better than it receives in terms of international awareness. Of France’s
three main distilling regions—Cognac, Calvados and Armagnac—the oldest producing region is Armagnac, where
commercial distillation has been continuously practiced since, as Vital Dufour wrote, at least the early 14th century.
Armagnac largely remained a local libation until the 1400s when it became commercialized in such places as
the Saint Sever public market in Landes, France. By the 17th century, Armagnac was known throughout much of
France. Its home departement, the Gers, in fact, became France’s initial wine growing district.
Then in the late 1860s and early 1870s, just as in Cognac, the Armagnac region’s roughly 100,000 hectares
of vineyards were starting to be destroyed through the encroachment of the phylloxera vastatrix louse. A mere
fraction of the land devoted to grape vines was replanted. In Armagnac today there are nearly 15,000 hectares
(37,066 acres) that extend over three departements, the entire Gers and parts of Landes and Lot-en-Garonne.
>>Armagnac’s Three Districts:
Armagnac boasts three demarcated districts, as officially declared in 1909. Each gained AOC (Appellation d’Origine
Controlée) status in 1936. Bas-Armagnac, whose capital is the bustling town of Eauze and is the western-most
district, constitutes approximately 57% of total Armagnac Brandy production. The character of Bas-Armagnac
Brandies is closely associated with its sandy/silty soils and stony ground dotted with sand dune-like formations
and rusty iron colors. Interestingly, the region’s argillaceous soils tend to produce grapes that live on the edge.
The grapes from this area produce hearty eaux-de-vie that are fruity, round, and with raisiny notes. But, they can
simultaneously exhibit zestily sour notes, reminiscent of lemon peel. The result is often a robust Armagnac that
can mature for decades.
Armagnac’s Tenarèze district lies in the center and has the town of Condom as its hub. Tenarèze accounts
for nearly 40% of Armagnac’s Brandy output. Its clay/limestone/sand soils are similar to some of Cognac’s choicest
soil types. Thus, Tenarèze Brandies tend to be very full-bodied, lush in texture, spicy, potent tasting, and long-
lasting. While the Brandies from Bas-Armagnac tend to dominate the conversation, those hailing from Tenarèze
are just as seductive and elegant.
10 thebrandyauthority.comHaut-Armagnac, called “white Armagnac” due to the abundance of limestone, is the area’s largest
district, cradling both Bas-Armagnac and Tenarèze, but contributes a mere 3% of Armagnac’s total eaux-de-vie
output. Aside from making succulent eaux-de-vie, Haut-Armagnac is best known for its inexpensive, highly acid-
ic, and crisp white wines grown on chalky, clay soils.
Ten grape varieties are, by law, permitted for the production of Armagnac. The four dominant grapes
are Baco 22A and, just as in Cognac, Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche, and Colombard. The secondary grapes that
are allowed but infrequently utilized are Mauzac Blanc, Mauzac Rosé, Plainte de Grèce, Meslier St. François,
Jurançon Blanc and Clairette de Gascogne. Some producers occasionally offer single variety Armagnacs. The
Armagnac region’s 15,000 hectares also account for Vin de Pays Côtes de Gasgogne (table wines) and Floc de
Gascogne, Armagnac’s lovely aperitif. Floc de Gascogne is a Vin Mistelle, or a blend of unfermented grape juice
mixed with Armagnac, made in the style of Cognac’s Pineau des Charentes.
Currently, there are about 4,000 grape growers in Gascony, of which approximately 250 produce and
bottle Armagnac. There are also around 40 negociants, or Brandy entrepreneurs, who buy already barrelled
Armagnac from grower/distillers and age and bottle Armagnac under their own label. Francis Darroze is the
most renowned of these houses. Six million bottles of Armagnac are sold annually.
>>Production:
Grape harvest occurs each year in Gacony during September and October. Then, the grapes are fermented into
wine. Distillation is carried out almost exclusively in November and December of the harvest year once fermen-
tation is completed. Since the 19th century, Armagnac has been distilled in a peculiar kind of still, the “l’alambic
Armagnaçais”, that was reportedly developed by Marquis de Bonas and patented in 1818. This unique variety
of still for all intents and purposes places a continuous still’s plate-filled copper column on top of a pot-still’s
thebrandyauthority.com 11copper kettle. Today, 95% of all Armagnac is distilled in alambic Armagnaçais. The Armagançais claim that their
single distillation process is more demanding than double distillation because there’s just one shot at it.
A large percentage of distillation in Gascony is done by small armies of roving distillers, known
as Armagnac ambulant in French. The colorful roving distillers can be seen pulling their portable alambic
Armagnaçais around the countryside on wagons, starting the last week of October. About 25% of alambic
Armagnaçais are wood-fired while the majority are heated by gas. Since so few grape growers own their own
alambic Armagnaçais (only about 60 do because of the expense of owning one), the roving distillers are kept
furiously busy during the last two months of every year as they travel from estate to estate, cooking the local
wine to transform it into eau-de-vie.
Even though double distillation is legally allowed in Gascony, by long tradition the fermented wine
in Armagnac undergoes only a single distillation. The spirit that is produced by the alambic Armagnaçais still
is colorless, clear, piercingly fragrant, and ranges typically from 55% to 65% alcohol. Even with the column
element, the eau-de-vie that comes out of the alambic Armagnaçais is lower in proof than those Cognac eaux-
de-vie that emerge from their double pot still distillation. In a weird way, this is a sign of the inefficiency of the
alambic Armagnaçais. But the distillers will tell you flat-out that it is that inefficiency that accounts for the robust
and highly distinctive nature of Armagnac.
12 thebrandyauthority.com>>Maturation & Labeling Laws:
Armagnacs are aged in oak. Once the eau-de-vie comes off the alambic Armagnaçais, the virgin spirit is quickly
pumped into new 400-420 liter oak barrels (pièces in French) for from six months to two years. Most are then
pumped into older barrels for longer periods of slow maturation. Black oak from the Gascon forest of Monlezun
is the customary choice, but oak from the forests of Limousin, Tronçais or Allier is also utilized today. In warm,
sunny, and temperate Gascony the loss of spirit to evaporation (the infamous angel’s share) usually happens at
an annual rate of between 2% and 5%.
Regardless of the source of the oak, Armagnac must be aged in oak for a minimum of one year, with
other minimums required for particular designations. Here is the 2018 breakdown:
• VS (Very Special; a.k.a. Three Star) Armagnacs are aged in French oak casks for at least one year.
• VSOP (Very Superior Old Pale) Armagnacs are by law aged in French oak casks for at least four
years.
• Napoléon Armagnacs are by law aged in French oak casks for at least six years.
• Hors d’Age and XO (Extra Old) Armagnacs, since 2015, can’t by law be sold before they are aged in
barrels for a minimum of ten years.
• Vintage Armagnacs must be made from grapes that were harvested from only a single vintage year
(1999, 2009, etc.).
Vintage Armagnacs are always made from the grapes of one vintage as indicated on the label. Other
Armagnac bottlings may cite specific ages, such as 15 Ans (15 years old), 20 Ans, et cetera. Vintage Armagnac is far
more common than the rather rare vintage Cognac. Every harvest season, approximately 9 to 10 million bottles
of Armagnac are produced in Gascony. No less than 65% of Armagnac is sold within France while the balance of
35% is exported to over 130 nations.
Portable alambic Armagnaçais.
thebrandyauthority.com 13The leftovers of winemaking – grape skins, seeds and stems, a.k.a. pomace. C. GRAPPA, MARC & POMACE BRANDY–EUROPE & WORLD >>Pomace Brandies: Some famous grape Brandies made in Europe, especially Italy and France, are considered as “pomace Bran- dies.” Pomace is comprised of vinicultural leftovers, meaning the grape seeds, stems, and skins, from winemak- ing. Pomace Brandies, made around the world, have existed for many centuries. Frenchmen refer to them as Marc, Bolivians call them Singani, Chileans Aguardiente, Portuguese Aguardente, Spanish Orujo, Iranians Araq, Romanians Tescovina, Greeks Tsipouro, and Italians Grappa. In centuries past, these local spirits were frequently held in low esteem by outsiders due to their rustic nature. Today, more than a few of these local spirits are viewed as delicacies, with Grappa and Marc especially considered world-class spirits. >>Thumbnail History–GRAPPA: Grappa started out as a rural alcoholic beverage, produced in the late autumn after Italy’s grape harvest and the making of regional wine. Though there exist some accounts of Grappa being made by a physician in Padua in the 15th century CE, the initial producer of renown was Bartolo Nardini in the late 1700s. Wine- makers took the partially fermented by-product of wine production, the leftover juicy grape pulp, seeds and skins, known as pomace, mixed it with water and sold it to traveling distillers who boiled the pomace in small, mobile copper pot stills. The intense heating created a potent vapor. When the vapor was cooled in copper coils, it condensed, becoming the crystalline, fragrant and high alcohol liquid called Grappa. 14 thebrandyauthority.com
>>Grappa’s Facelift:
Realizing that the only way to combat Grappa’s rowdy image was to modernize and change customary
production methods, a handful of Italy’s foremost master distillers and wine producers, especially the
Nonino family (Friuli), Bocchino (Piedmont), Angelo Gaja (Piedmont) and Jacopo Poli (Veneto), decided to
place a heightened emphasis on quality. Their goal, independent of each other, was to alter the international
perception of their native distillate by making Grappa less provincial and more cosmopolitan. In short, they
each saw the dire need for creating Grappa that was more accessible and elegant.
By the 20th century, double distillation was reinstated in many Grappa distilleries. The Nonino
family was the first to introduce single grape variety Grappas, referred to as monovitigno®, a practice that
has gained many proponents. Distilling the pomace of individual grape types separately rather than mixing
those of multiple grape varieties together was one of the most critical in a string of innovations in the last
century.
Another advancement was acknowledging the importance of capturing the essence of top-grade
pomace by sourcing only the best winemaking remnants from Italy’s finest vintners. These innovators
also made the connection that rather than allowing the pomace to sit around for days, stewing and fer-
menting on its own, in order to capture the innate freshness of the grapes, one needed to distill the pomace
as soon as possible. Basically, the emphasis concentrated on freshness of the grape pomace and freshness
of the spirits.
Nonino copper batch steam stills.
thebrandyauthority.com 15Distilled spirits authorities and purveyors consider the new generation of Grappa as being among
one of the finest digestif (after-dinner) Brandies available. So revered, elegant and trendy has Grappa become,
in fact, that it has even inspired non-Italian distillers and winemakers, like northern California’s highly
esteemed Germain-Robin, St George Aqua Perfecta, Araujo and others, to produce their own versions of it.
Sublimely complex yet approachable, contemporary Italian Grappas typically range in strength from
40 to 45 percent alcohol. The best are produced from single grapes cultivated on single estates. A growing
number are matured in wood barrels made of oak, juniper, birch, ash, cherry or acacia. Some are flavored
with natural flavorings such as chamomile, rue leaves, quinine, anise, pine nuts, rhubarb, almonds, cinna-
mon, mint, cloves, juniper and caraway seeds.
No longer the favored spirit of only alpine northern Italy (Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto
Adige, Veneto and Piedmont), fine Grappas hail from such central and southern provinces as Tuscany,
Umbria, Campania, Sardinia, Sicily, Basilicata and The Marches. Truth is, thanks to the vision of a handful
of determined distillers in the 1970s and 1980s Grappa has, with justification, gripped not just Italy but the
cultured culinary world.
There also exist more than a few oak-aged grape Brandies hailing from Italy. Among the most
famous include Fratelli Branca Stravecchio (also makes Fernet Branca), which was first introduced in 1888,
and Francoli Oak-Aged Grappa. Many of the established Grappa producers in Italy’s north also oak-age a
share of their Grappas.
D. SPANISH BRANDY & BRANDY DE JEREZ–SPAIN
>>Thumbnail History:
The making of distilled spirits in Spain is inextricably linked with the occupation of the Iberian Peninsula from
711-1492 CE by the Islamic Moors. Likely introduced by the Romans, wine had been made in many of Spain’s
regions for hundreds of years before the 8th century Moorish invasion from northern Africa. The historical rea-
soning is this: assuming that wine had already long existed in Spain, it is highly probable that the scientifically
sophisticated Moors dabbled, perhaps extensively, in wine distillation. While in adherence to their Islamic beliefs
of abstinence from alcoholic beverages, the Moors did, however, utilize their distilling acumen by distilling wine
for the creation of medicines and cosmetics.
The Moors were eventually driven from Spain after 781 years by Christian Spain following the marriage of
Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, the so-called “Catholic Monarchs”. But even in the Moors’ absence,
the distilling traditions and principles they founded remained a vibrant part of Spain’s cultural fabric, especially
in southernmost Andalucia.
The most famous Spanish Brandy of all is Brandy de Jerez. Spanish law dictates that Brandy de Jerez must
be matured in Sherry barrels in the demarcated Sherry-making district, a.k.a. the “Sherry Triangle”, bounded by
the cities of Jerez de la Frontera, Puerto de Santa Maria and Sanlúcar de Barrameda, located in Andalusia in the
south of Spain. Sherry producers have been distilling a portion of their wines since at least the 16th century, if only
to use it as an additive to their export wine to prevent the wine from turning bad. Brandy de Jerez is Spain’s sole
officially demarcated Brandy district.
16 thebrandyauthority.comBy the 19th century, Spain’s Sherry merchants started noticing the large amount of revenues that
French Cognac producers were reportedly annually raking in. Not surprisingly, by 1860 “coñac de Jerez” began
appearing in wine merchants across Spain. France’s Charentais Brandy-makers, however, took serious excep-
tion to the name and the name was changed. In any case, the Spanish result is a Brandy that’s heavier and
sweeter than the French styles, but also more generous and densely grapy.
>>Modern Spanish Brandy:
The majority of Brandy de Jerez Brandies are created out of low acid white wines made from Airen grapes culti-
vated in the expansive vineyards of central Spain’s massive Denominacion de Origen (DO) Castilla-La Mancha
district. Enormous Castilla-La Mancha is comprised of 190,000 hectares (469,500 acres) planted to grape vines.
Wines are produced locally in the city of Tomelloso, which is likewise home to numerous distilleries for Bran-
dy production. Blending and aging of eaux-de-vie for the making of Brandy de Jerez happens further south in
Andalucia. The style that has become synonymous with Spain’s Brandies is rich, dark and a little sweet. Span-
ish Brandies are distilled in both column stills and pot stills.
As a matter of routine and custom, they are aged in an ingenious maturation system that mirrors
the system utilized for aging Sherry: the solera system. The solera system can be thought of as a pyramid
concept, in which the ground floor row of barrels contains the oldest Brandies and the next row above the
ground floor row is a little younger and so on. The ground floor row is called the solera while the upper rows
are known as criaderas. When producers need to bottle more supply, they dip into the oldest, mellowest
Brandies from the solera, but no more than one-third of the barrel’s content. Youthful younger Brandy from
the row of barrels directly above (criadera) replaces the older Brandy from the ground floor and so on up
the pyramid. The inherent beauty of the solera system is that you are always marrying older Brandies with
newer, fresher ones. The older Brandies lend depth to the younger ones and the younger ones bring vigor to
the older ones.
The official breakdown of Brandy
de Jerez styles goes as follows:
• Brandy de Jerez Solera is
the fruitiest style because
it is the youngest style by
law. It must be aged in
barrels for at the mini-
mum one year.
• Brandy de Jerez Solera
Reserva must legally have
endured a maturation pe-
riod in barrel of no less
than three years.
• Brandy de Jerez Solera
Gran Reserva indicates
the longest aging period,
one of at least ten years
before bottling.
thebrandyauthority.com 17In addition to Brandy de Jerez, there are several world-class Brandies made in the Catalonian wine regions
that surround Barcelona by famed producers like Miguel Torres and Bodega Mascaró. Penedes, Spain’s home
base to its beloved sparkling wine, Cava, is the hub of Brandy-making in Spain’s northeast quadrant that borders
France. The primary grape types used for the stylish Catalonian Brandies are Parellada, Xarel-lo, and Macabeo.
Virtually all Catalonian Brandies are double-distilled in copper pot-stills. Being so close to southern France, it is
little wonder that the Penedes Brandies resemble their French counterparts.
E. MAINSTREAM & ALAMBIC BRANDY–UNITED STATES
>>Thumbnail History:
The story of New World Brandy began five centuries ago. Just recall from where the first immigrants to the
Americas came…
The Spanish in the American southwest colonized the vast territory from what is now west Texas and
New Mexico to California from the 16th and 18th centuries, in the process creating the fabled Mission Chain of
religious outposts ending in present day Sonoma, California, north of San Francisco. Was it mere coincidence
that the epicenter of Brandy production in Spain ended up being in Andalucia, where the Moors invaded in
711 CE, bringing with them the technology of distillation? In 2018, Andalucia is where today 94% of all Spanish
Brandies–approximately 80 million bottles per year–are produced.
The French fur traders, colonists, clergy, and explorers moved to North America’s northern expanses of
Quebec and northern New England via the St Lawrence River in the late 17th century. In France, their ancestral
home, the distillation of wine had been established in Armagnac by the middle 1300s and in neighboring Co-
gnac by the late 1500s. The distillation of apple cider in Normandy dates back at least to the mid-16th century.
The British, Dutch, Scots and Germans colonized the east coast colonies from present-day Virginia,
Pennsylvania, New York to Maine throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. The Dutch accounted for Jenever, the
precursor of Gin, and assorted fruit Brandies; German distillers created Schnapps and fruit Brandies made from
18 thebrandyauthority.comcherries and plums likely in the 13th century; the British were active in the distillation of grain spirits to make
Gin long before they arrived on North American shores in 1607; and the Scots had been making Whisky at least
since the 15th century.
Italian immigrants amassed from Boston to Philadelphia initially and later in northern California and
brought with them the skills to produce Grappa, the centuries-old grape must spirit that every wine-producing
region in the homeland consumed.
All of these pioneering colonists in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries hailed from cultures that excelled in
fermentation and distillation practices. Europeans excelled because for generations before them–right from
the time of the Medical School of Salerno, located in southern Italy in the 1100s–fermentation and distillation
were prevalent practices in each culture, utilized first for medicinal purposes and then later for recreational
use. But establishing sustainable communities in the enormous, heavily forested, and often hostile New World
was difficult. Reliable sources of pure drinking water were, in fact, scarce. Transporting good water from their
sources to villages proved arduous.
Colonists immediately realized that the need to quickly establish the natural resources required
for the production of beverage alcohol-specifically, vineyards, grain fields, and orchards was dire. How
the earliest colonists survived in North America’s brutal environment is mind-boggling when you ponder
the obstacles of rampant disease, unwelcoming natives, tough winters, the lack of basic hygiene and reliable
medicines, and, worst of all, the absence of Dunkin’ Donuts.
Yet many did survive. They endured, in part, by creating the potables that furthered their existence.
Initially these were the ciders from orchard fruits and the beers from grains, such as rye and barley. Among
those initial beverages was peach cider, perhaps the first widespread low-alcohol beverage in the New World,
along with cherry and apple ciders.
But the inherent problem with ciders and beers was that they spoiled quickly, especially in North Amer-
ica’s fickle climate which ran higher in temperature and humidity than much of western Europe. Little wonder
that after a period of discovery, the traditional urge to distill kicked into gear. By the early 1600s ciders were
being dumped into crude alembic stills, some made of copper and others of wood logs, and boiled until they
vaporized and were condensed back into colorless, high-alcohol distillate.
>>Cider Becomes Brandy:
Brandy-making became a staple activity in the colonies. In 1621, town elder Sir Francis Wyatt instructed his
citizens in Virginia to “withdraw attention from tobacco and direct it… to the making of oil of walnuts and
employing the apothecaries of distillation…” These first American Brandies were probably relatively low in alcohol
by today’s standards but doubtless they were the progenitors of what was to come. Today, Laird’s Distillery,
founded in 1780 in New Jersey and a fabled producer of Apple Brandy and Whiskey is still operating.
Unfortunately, due to the occasional negative tendencies of human nature, not all eastern colonial Bran-
dies were used for noble purposes. French fur traders in Quebec, for instance, enticed native Americans with
their notorious brew called “trader’s milk”. This was a soupy concoction made from Rum, Brandy, red pepper,
and tobacco. Trader’s milk intoxicated the Algonquins, Hurons and Iroquois of the northern forests, thereby
making them easy prey to the traders.
In the meantime as the Germans, British, French, and Dutch were consuming large amounts of alembic
fruit Brandies in the east, Spanish settlers from west Texas to southern California were creating their own region-
al wines and distillates. These from the hearty black grape known for more than two centuries as the “Mission
variety”. We now know from experiments done in Spain in 2006 that the Mission grape was, in fact, the Criolla
thebrandyauthority.com 19variety from Spain. The Criolla
was championed both by New
Mexico landholders and the
Spanish clergy in the 17th cen-
tury. Criolla produced an insipid
wine by today’s standards but as
history has shown, weak, high-
acid wines can produce lovely
distillates.
In the late 18th century,
Franciscan priest Junipero Serra
established vineyards in all nine
of the Missions he founded in
California. The California Mis-
sion system produced 21 Catholic
missions from 1769 to 1833. The
majority had thriving vineyards.
Many wine historians agree
that perhaps the most successful mission in terms of winemaking and distillation was the Mission San Gabriel
Arcángel near Los Angeles. It was established in 1771. The padres kept an inventory of their wines and Brandies
and in 1829 the records boast of a robust stock of 600 barrels of wine and 200 barrels of Brandy.
The next boon for California Brandy came in the mid-19th century after gold was discovered first in 1842
in the San Fernando Valley and then six years later in 1848 near Sutter’s Mill. By 1849, the California Gold Rush
was in full swing, in particular in foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The luckiest prospectors became
wealthy from “gold in them thar hills”. San Francisco naturally attracted many of the nouveau riche and thus
became home to the wealthiest miners. Along with that prosperity came a deep thirst for finer beverages,
including California Brandy, which was highly thought of.
With the historic joining of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads in May of 1869, some of
the wealthiest miners started to return to their eastern cities in the 1860s and 1870s. With the intercontinental
railroad operating, the transport of California Brandy to the affluent eastern markets of Chicago, New York,
Boston, Washington, St Louis, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia was made significantly easier. As such, California
Brandy became a national drink.
One of the prime movers behind the railroad expansion to the west as well as the fortunes of Califor-
nia Brandy was the former California governor, Leland Stanford. Stanford, who eventually founded Stanford
University, owned a massive amount of land, which supported hundreds of acres of vineyards. Fortuitously,
following three successive bad harvests of poor quality wine, Stanford decided to distill the wines to save his
investment. Reports from the period claim that Stanford’s Brandies were as majestic and elegant as the era’s
Cognacs.
In the years following the American Civil War, California Brandy’s reach and reputation continued to
grow as commerce expanded and international natural events took hold. One of those events was the devasta-
tion of Europe’s vineyards by a rapacious beetle, phylloxera vastatrix, a pest that originated in North America.
With the European production of wine and Brandies decimated for nearly three decades, California’s Brandy
producers ramped up their production and in the process gained even more attention as America’s favorite
domestic Brandies.
20 thebrandyauthority.comSimultaneously, another 19th century phenomenon was occurring in America’s taverns, pubs, sporting
clubs and metropolitan hotel bars…the mixing of spirits with other ingredients, such as fruit juices, bitters,
and sugar. Of course I’m referring to the cocktail, as created by illustrious 19th century bartenders such as Jerry
Thomas, Orsamus Williard, Bill Boothby and William Schmidt. Consequently, the taverns of America’s biggest
cities were awash with punches made with Brandy, as well as Daisys, Brandy Smashes, Crustas and Flips.
Little known is the fact that until the 20th century Brandy in the U.S. was classified by the government as
medicinal. A bottle of Brandy, made in pot stills, was common in most domiciles throughout the 19th and early
20th century.
>>Modern North American Brandy:
Two world wars and the Korean conflict, the Great Depression,
and, most devastating of all, national Prohibition would throw
roadblocks in the highway for all beverage alcohol. Distilleries
and wineries closed, many permanently during the 40-year
span of 1915 to 1955. By the time the world and America began
to recover from the half century of crises, the landscape for
Brandy, in general, had been dramatically altered. Whiskey and
beer became the reigning king and queen of beverage alcohol
in the 1950s and 1960s, soon to be followed by Vodka in the
1970s and 1980s. Brandy became an afterthought.
But during the pivotal 1970s, the first stirrings of
resurgence occurred for California Brandy in the labels of E&J
(Gallo), Christian Brothers, Paul Masson, Italian Swiss Colony,
Almaden, and Korbel. These were for the most part column
still, high volume Brandies made from Thompson Seedless
grapes grown in California’s fertile Central Valley. Suddenly,
Brandy, that most any American household could afford, was
being made at a relatively high level of quality.
The 1980s and 1990s saw a parallel and equally histor-
ic occurrence with the dawn of the artisanal Brandy distiller.
Germain-Robin, Jepson, RMS Carneros, St George Spirits,
Osocalis and Charbay in California and Clear Creek in Oregon
came onto the scene. These were the pioneers of contemporary
alembic (traditional pot still) Brandy in North America.
Presently, other craft Brandy producers like Gallo’s
brand new McCall Distillery, Copper & Kings, Koval, Rhine
Hall, and Starlight, just to name a few, are the next generation
of potentially great domestic Brandy producers. Further chang-
es including the purchases of Christian Brothers by Heaven
Hill Distilleries and Paul Masson by Constellation Brands have
added distribution muscle to the American Brandy equation.
thebrandyauthority.com 21F. PISCO & BRANDY–SOUTH AMERICA
>>Thumbnail History:
The discovery of the New World by European explorers in the late 15th and early 16th centuries CE forever changed
the Americas. As the Spanish, English, Portuguese, Dutch, and French, in particular, began colonizing large areas
of the Caribbean region and North and South America from 1500-1600, the European social customs, technolo-
gies, livestock, crops, religion, and, most regrettably, diseases (smallpox, measles, influenza and more) altered not
just the topography of the Americas but likewise the social structure.
Each of the European societies that tamed the New World had long established traditions of brewing,
winemaking, and distilling. These skills accompanied them to assist the colonies in sustaining their existence as
they fought to survive on the edge of the frontiers. To that end, the colonists planted orchards, fields of grain, and
vineyards to produce the base materials for the production of ales, wines, and Brandies.
In South America, the Portuguese, Dutch and Spanish led the way to inhabiting major sections of the
continent. But it proved to be the Spanish especially who influenced the direction of South American Brandy
as they established vineyards in wildernesses that we now know as the nations of Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, and
Peru. In Argentina, a Brandy coyly named Coñac is made from classic wine grapes of European origin in pot stills.
Bolivia makes a tasty pomace Brandy, called Singani, from the wonderful white muscat of Alexandria grape. But
perhaps the quintessential South American Brandy is made in Chile and Peru. That Brandy is Pisco.
By the turn of the 17th century, distilling had become a localized small industry in the Viceroyalty of Peru,
an enormous area that included most of the southern and western parts of South America. In the northern Vice-
royalty, the coastal town of Pisco, in what is now Peru, is where the key distilling region was centered. To the south,
the distilling industry was centered near the twin ports of Coquimbo and La Serena, in what is now Chile. In all of
these places, and soon after in the Catamarca valley of what is now northern Argentina, Muscat of Alexandria and
Mission grapes were grown, vinified and distilled in pot stills.
Aging of Pisco in wood and clay vessels.
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