Grapes! They are all grape based spirits. Some are straight wine distillates and other are made from the must. First, some are straight wine distillates, such as the ones below. This category of spirits is named brandy. Let’s explore this today!

Which Brandy do you know?

ARMAGNAC (in France)
BRANDY DE JEREZ (in Spain)
COGNAC (in France)
PISCO (in Chili and Peru)
METAXA (in Greece)
STRAVECCHIO (in Italy)

Eaux de vies

EAUX DE VIE (french) _ AGUARDIENTE (spanish) _ AGUARDENTE (portugese)

Both Brandy and Eau-de-Vie are spirits made from higher proof wine spirits. The word Brandy is used when the spirit is made from the distillation of wine.
Eau-de-Vie can technically be made from any fruit, among them, grape and grape pomace.
Pomace is the leftover from wine making, the must made of skins, stalks, seeds, stems everything left once fermented grapes are pressed.

The most famous of grape pomace Eau-de-Vie is GRAPPA originating from Italy but every country producing wine has developed its own “Grappa” wine producers will never throw away what took them a year to grow J. In France this is called MARC, BAGACEIRA in Portugal, ORUJO in Spain, TRESTER in Germany, LOZOVAČA in Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, ZIVANIA in Cyprus, CHACHA in Georgia, TSIPOURO in Greece, TÖRKÖLY in Hungaria, GROZDOVA in Bulgaria…

photo of grapevine
Photo by Balázs Burján on Pexels.com

Gins and vodkas

Of course Gin and Vodka producers can also add wine blends or distillates from wine to their products.