Brandy

Brandy here means three things above all, and each has its own page worth visiting.

Armagnac is the largest and the oldest part of the range. Delord, Francis Darroze, Chateau de Laubade, Domaine Tariquet, Castarede and Comte de Lamaestre, with single vintages running back to the 1940s. This is the deepest part of the shop.

Cognac is a grower list rather than a big house list. Paul Giraud, Jean Fillioux, Normandin-Mercier, Francois Voyer, Frapin, Maison Audry, Jean Grosperrin, Dudognon, Mery Melrose, Cognac Park and Frederic Mestreau. Not one of the four large houses appears, which is deliberate.

Calvados covers all three Normandy appellations through Christian Drouin, Roger Groult, Pierre Huet, Victor Gontier and Comte Louis de Lauriston.

Around them sit the related styles that belong in the same conversation: Pineau des Charentes and Pommeau, both blends of unfermented juice and young brandy, Ratafia de Champagne, and the fruit eaux de vie.

If you are choosing between the three, the simplest guide is that Cognac is the most polished, Armagnac the most characterful, and Calvados the most surprising.

Pineau, Pommeau, grappa and pisco all sit under the same heading, and our brandy guide maps how each one is made and where it belongs.

History

Brandy is distilled wine, and the word comes from the Dutch brandewijn, burnt wine. Dutch traders in the sixteenth century wanted to ship wine efficiently and hit on distilling it for the voyage, intending to add the water back later. Nobody bothered.

France produced the two great examples, and they took opposite approaches. Armagnac, in Gascony, is documented from the early 1300s and is distilled once in a continuous column still at low strength, which leaves more of the grape behind. Cognac, formalised much later, is distilled twice in copper pot stills, which gives a cleaner and lighter spirit that leans on oak.

Normandy had no useful vineyards but plenty of orchards, so it distilled cider instead and produced Calvados, first recorded in 1553.

Elsewhere the picture is different again. Spain makes Brandy de Jerez in a sherry solera. Italy distils grape pomace rather than wine and calls it grappa. Peru and Chile make pisco. Germany and Alsace distil whole fruit into eaux de vie.

What unites them is that everything in this category began as fruit, and time in wood is what turns it into brandy.

How to drink it

Use a tulip glass rather than a balloon snifter. The wide bowl looks traditional but concentrates alcohol vapour at the nose and hides the spirit. Never warm brandy over a flame.

Serve at room temperature and pour a small measure. Give it several minutes before the first sip: aged brandy opens slowly and the difference between the first and third sip is considerable.

Young brandy, in the VS and VSOP range, is a genuinely good cocktail base and was the original spirit in several classics. A Sidecar is brandy, orange liqueur and lemon. A Sazerac was made with Cognac before rye replaced it. Brandy and tonic with a slice of lemon is common in France and underrated here.

Older bottlings need nothing beside them. If you want food, keep it simple: dark chocolate, walnuts, or a hard aged cheese.

For a birth year gift, the vintage-dated Armagnacs are the obvious answer, because the year on the label is the year in the glass rather than an approximation.