Following up on an article about brandy back in November, here is a little summary about what you need to know about the spirits based of grapes. Enjoy!
More about brandy!
Some are straight wine distillates and other are made from the must.
Straight wine distillates, are often named brandy in Europe. In that category you could also put Pisco and similar spirits.
01
Wine distillates aka. brandy
ARMAGNAC (in France)
BRANDY DE JEREZ (in Spain)
COGNAC (in France)
PISCO (in Chili and Peru)
METAXA (in Greece)
STRAVECCHIO (in Italy)
02
Wine distillates aka. eaux de vies
EAUX DE VIE (French)
AGUARDIENTE (Spanish)
AGUARDENTE (Portuguese)
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.
03
Pomace based spirits
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.
For example:
MARC in France
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…
04
Gins and vodkas
Of course Gin and Vodka producers can also add wine blends or distillates from wine to their products but the ending products will rarely have sensory leftovers of the base materials. It is useful marketing wise though.
