Learning about Brandy

The Summer months are the best time of the year to consider the cool and refreshing Pineau des Charentes - a drink that has found favour with all those who taste the magical richness.

There is no official record of how the drink first came about but the common belief is that it was first made in the sixteenth century. Legend has it that Pineau was created when a winemaker accidently dropped some grapes into a barrel which contained some brandy. The resulting taste after it had aged was found to be so good that it became a regular practice and a new drink was formed.

The most common type of Pineau is white and made from the indigenous grape varieties such as ugni blanc, folle blanche, sauvignon and chardonnay. The Charente also grows cabernet sauvignon and merlot, found in many of the great clarets from nearby Bordeaux. The rules are that the eau de vie and grape juice (or “must”) have to come from the same producer and the resulting mixture is aged in their cellars. Most of the Pineau is aged from anything between three and ten years, but some have been kept in their oak casks for more than twenty years. There are even a few vintage Pineau’s available now, the finest of them being the 1995 from Beaulon which was aged in casks from Chateau d’Yquem.

Continuing from our previous post about early Cognac history, some more historical dates in time about the golden nectar...

• 1835 Felix Courvoisier and Louis Gallois found Cognac Courvoisier
• 1849 Martell use their own labels on their bottles for the first time
• 1854 Cognacs depict 4 different zones of cognac. Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Premier Bois and Deuxième Bois
• 1856 Hennessy start to label bottles
• 1858 The House of A E Dor is founded in Jarnac
• 1865 Hennessy start to use stars to denote cognac quality
• 1870 The maps of the Charente regions show Fins Bois and Bon Bois for the first time
• 1872 Phylloxera destroys most of the vines in Cognac
• 20^th Century Phylloxera resistant Ugni Blanc Vines imported from America largely replace Folle Blanche and Colombard.
• 1909 The six cognac crus are established and are protected by law
• 1927 Fine Champagne is defined on Remy Martin VSOP bottles
• 1936 Strict new rules of definition for cognac production introduced
• 1946 The Bureau National Interprofessionel de Cognac is founded
• 1993 Cognac region expands to 87,313 hectares
• 2003 America becomes the biggest cognac importer

Very few of us are aware that French Brandies have a long history, indeed they are some of the oldest distilled spirits. Here are a few facts for your next bar quiz..

• 1411 First Brandy distilled in Armagnac, mainly for farmers.
• 1494 Francois 1 is born in Cognac and later allows traders to use the Charente river to ship salt to the ports.
• 1549 First Brandy appears in Cognac, a merchant from La Rochelle produced four casks of “good cognac”.
• 1643 Philippe Augier founds first cognac house, Augier Freres. 1678 Cogniack Brandy is mentioned in the London Gazette..
• 1696 Louis XIV grants Frapin Family high aristocratic status. 1715 Jean Martell arrives in Cognac from Jersey.
• 1724 Paul-Emilie Remy Martin and his father start Remy Martin. 1725 Isaac Ranson starts a trading house in Cognac.
• 1762 James Delamain becomes a partner of Ranson Delamain.
• 1765 James Hennessy from Ireland starts trading Cognac Hennessy
• 1795 James Hennessy marries Marthe Martell. Otard Dupuy started.
• 1797 Thomas Hine and Elisabeth Delamain marry
• 1817 First use of classification VOP-very old pale and VSOP used

More to follow next month!

Distillation is essentially a physical rather than a chemical action and is in effect the concentration of a wine mixture or fermented fruit or grain. It is a means of separating the constituents of a liquid mixture by partial vaporisation of the mixture and the separate recovery of the vapour and the alcoholic residue. In the case of making brandy, the grapes must conform to strict standards, mainly to control their quality and defects since both are concentrated in the distillation. The grapes used to make fine brandy have to combine both acidity and fruitiness but in cheaper distillations such as pomace brandy the pips and skins are also used. The main quality required is for the wines to be “clean”, the term generally implies free from sulphur dioxide which can occur if the grapes are left too long before crushing. The principle of distillation is simplicity itself, the process is designed to remove the alcohol which boils at 78.3°C and other impurities in the wine from the water which is the bulk of the liquid and then capturing the alcohol separately. The alcoholic steam rises to the head of the still before condensing through a series of pipes back to a liquid.