Brandy
Brandy is a spirit mostly made by distilling wine. The name comes from a Dutch word, brandewijn, which means “burned wine.” Two of the best-known and indeed best types of brandy, whose production is governed by strict rules, are Cognac and Armagnac, both from France. So, all Cognac is brandy but not all brandy is Cognac. Many wine-growing regions of the world also produce brandy, and the flavors vary according to both the types of grape used for the wine and the differing production processes. Most U.S. brandy comes from California. Brandy is also used as an ingredient in spirits such as Metaxa, a Greek spirit. A distinct type of brandy is fruit brandy, which is made from fruit juice, wine, or pulp from fruit other than grapes. Grappa, common in Italy, and the South American spirit called pisco are also types of brandy.
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How Is Brandy Made?
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Paul Masson Grande Amber VS Brandy
Listen, there are gimmicks and there are gimmicks, and the golf world has far more than its fair share of them. Oceano Azul’s Fairway Cognac, however, is perhaps the most ambitious scheme we’ve seen to date, and that includes whiskey Ducks Unlimited-branded whiskey bottled in a shotgun shell, metal WhistlePig piggy banks, and booze contained…
Not even the fine print of the old-timey Argonaut Brandy bottles will clue you in to who actually makes it, but it’s not a massive secret. Argonaut is a new brand produced by none other than Ernest & Julio Gallo, made in California from its own excess wine production. For decades Gallo has been distilling…
Back in 2022, Sazerac launched a Cognac and named it for itself: Sazerac de Forge. Well, actually the brand had been launched about 250 years prior, so this was bringing the OG Sazerac back to life. Unfortunately, the 2022 “Finest Original” Sazerac de Forge was a bit lackluster, a clearly youthful blend with eaux de…
Chip Tate entered the American whiskey conversation in 2008 with the founding of Balcones Distilling in Waco, Texas. Operating from a repurposed welding shop, Tate engineered and assembled his own copper stills, setting the stage for a hands on approach that quickly separated his work from established producers. At a moment when small scale distilling…
Back in 2008 we had our first (primitive) encounter with Cognac producer Delamain and its Pale & Dry offering — an XO that stands at the beginning of the operation’s range. The expression dates back to 1920 and is made exclusively from eaux-de-vie of Grande Champagne, matured in 350-litre barrels of old Limousin oak. In…
The recent launch of Raj Bhakta‘s Hogsworth came with raised eyebrows and OK reviews — the blend of Armagnac and bourbon being a head-scratcher that at least sort of worked. Now Bhakta is back with a new Hogsworth — not a new Batch release of the original bottling but a whole new expression called Hogsworth The…
Bourbon is often hailed as America’s native spirit. That title gained official weight in 1964, when Congress declared bourbon a “distinctive product of the United States,” placing it on the same footing as Scotch whisky and granting it formal protection in international trade. Only whiskey crafted on American soil could bear the name. Yet for…
Cognac Ferrand‘s fourth installment of its Renegade Barrel collection is here. To refresh your memory, these are “anything is possible” barrels which primarily revolve around unusual finishes. Unlike the off-putting Barrel #3, Barrel #4 is not finished in a rum barrel but rather finishes its aging in a tropical climate in Barbados. Note that while…
Armenia‘s Ararat brandy is out with an odd new expression, which is flavored with coffee. There’s not a lot of information about what’s in the bottle here — either the age of the brandy used or any information about the coffee — but we won’t let that stop us. Let’s dive in. Ararat Coffee Brandy…
Did 2025 turn out the way you were expecting it to? The world’s gone so insane that, at this point, I don’t think anything that happens in the next 12 months could possibly surprise us. Did you also get the memo that the alcohol business is in massive decline? Turns out people stopped drinking, just…