What is brandy? Wine spirit, fruit brandy, cognac and the law

Brandy sold in Great Britain is defined by category 5 of the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008, Annex II. It is a spirit drink produced from wine spirit, with distillation kept below 94.8% ABV. The same category requires a year of maturation in oak, or six months when the oak casks hold under 1,000 litres. It also allows a wine distillate to be added, as long as that distillate supplies no more than half the alcohol in the finished drink.

Category 5 sets the minimum strength at 36% ABV, while wine spirit, the parent category, is set at 37.5%, the figure many other spirit drinks share. Brandy’s floor is lower than wine spirit’s. Neither may be flavoured, though traditional production methods are not excluded, and added caramel may adjust colour only.

Category 4 defines wine spirit as spirit produced only by distilling wine, or wine fortified for distillation, at less than 86% ABV, or by redistilling a wine distillate at that strength. Brandy starts there. Maturation is what makes it brandy. A wine spirit matured for at least as long as brandy requires may still be sold as wine spirit.

GOV.UK’s register of protected spirit drink names lists Eau-de-vie de Cognac, Eau-de-vie des Charentes and Cognac as a geographical indication in category 4, wine spirit. Armagnac sits in the same category, and Brandy de Jerez is listed in category 5, brandy or Weinbrand.

Both French entries show an original EU registration of 12 June 1989, and all three show the UK scheme date of 31 December 2020. A bartender calls all three brandy. The protected name on the bottle says the place and the method behind it.

Category 9 covers fruit spirit, made only by fermenting and distilling fleshy fruit, with or without stones, at less than 86% ABV so that the aroma and taste of the fruit survive. The minimum strength is 37.5%, and the sales name is the word spirit preceded by the name of the fruit: cherry spirit, which may also be called kirsch, or plum spirit, which may also be called slivovitz. Pear spirit sold as Williams must come only from Williams pears.

Category 6 is grape marc spirit, made only from grape marc, the pressed residue of winemaking, fermented and distilled with the marc itself at less than 86% ABV. Grappa is listed under it as an Italian geographical indication, and the grappa page covers the spirit itself.

Calvados is listed under category 10, cider spirit and perry spirit, not under fruit spirit. INAO describes it as a spirit from cider apples and perry pears, aged in oak for at least two years and distilled either twice or in a continuous column still. The production area covers much of Normandy and parts of neighbouring departments. The calvados page has the detail.

Pisco has two protected names in Great Britain. GOV.UK lists a Peruvian Pisco and a separate Chilean Pisco, both in category 9, fruit spirit. The Peruvian entry rests on the EU register of 31 October 2013 and the UK-Andean Countries trade agreement, and the Chilean one rests on the UK-Chile association agreement. The pisco page covers the spirit, and the register records both names.

The United States draws the line differently. Under 27 CFR 5.145, brandy is spirit distilled from the fermented juice, mash or wine of fruit, at less than 95% ABV and bottled at no less than 40% ABV. The word brandy on its own may be used only for grape brandy, and other fruit brandies carry the fruit’s name. Blended applejack is a mixture of up to 80% neutral spirits and at least 20% apple brandy that has spent two years or more in oak. That mix is why the applejack page lists it as a spirit drink, and the apple brandy page covers the straight spirit.

Category 32 is liqueur: a spirit drink of at least 15% ABV with a minimum sugar content of 100 grams per litre, or 70 grams per litre for a cherry liqueur whose alcohol is entirely cherry spirit.

The same category allows the compound terms prune brandy, orange brandy, apricot brandy and cherry brandy on a liqueur, with the word liqueur beside the term, to mirror established production methods. If the alcohol is not the spirit named, the label says what it is. Cherry brandy and apricot brandy are liqueurs that borrow the word.

Grand Marnier is a liqueur made with cognac, not a brandy, and Difford’s Guide supplies the figures: 40% ABV, cognac at 51% of the content and 200 grams of sugar per litre, twice the 100 grams that category 32 sets for most liqueurs. The cognac is the base and the sugar makes it a liqueur. The orange liqueurs comparison puts it beside the others.

The table sets each spirit against the same four questions. Each age is a minimum, and each category number is the one in the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008, as the register lists it.

The wine for cognac is thin on purpose: BNIC gives around 9% ABV, with sugar and sulphites banned during fermentation. BNIC’s production page describes two batch distillations, called chauffes, and sets the end of distilling at 31 March following the harvest.

BNIA says about 95% of Armagnac comes off a continuous copper still, at 52% to 72% ABV and traditionally 52% to 60%, before it goes into oak pièces of 400 litres, mostly from Gascony or Limousin. BNIC says the Charentais double distillation preserves the flavour of the fruit, and BNIA says the continuous still gives Armagnac its personality.

Brandy de Jerez starts from Airén grapes, with some Palomino, and the Brandy de Jerez site puts the cost at about three litres of wine for each litre of brandy. It ages in American oak butts that have held sherry for at least three years, usually 500 to 600 litres, and passes through a solera system of criaderas, so its age is an average.

BNIC states that a cognac’s age is that of the youngest eau-de-vie in the blend, that no cognac leaves for sale before two years in oak, and that the tiers most used are two, four and ten years: VS, VSOP and XO.

BNIA gives the same logic for Armagnac. A VSOP blend has a youngest spirit of at least four years, an XO of at least ten, and a Hors d’Age more than ten, while a vintage Armagnac carries one harvest year and a minimum of ten years in wood.

Brandy de Jerez grades by minimum average age: six months for Solera, one year for Solera Reserva and three years for Solera Gran Reserva, because a solera blends many ages.

A label gives a floor, never a ceiling. A VSOP can hold much older spirit than its minimum. Cognac VS, VSOP and XO sets out the tiers, the six crus and the stills.

For neat brandy, BNIC recommends a tulip or stem glass, whose slightly closed shape holds the aromas in, then a gentle rotation, a first nose and a small sip. The BNIC page does not mention warming the glass in the hand, which makes that a habit rather than a step. The brandy snifter page covers the balloon shape.

BNIC also describes cognac served on the rocks, naming VSOP, and says the cold lowers the impression of alcoholic power while releasing candied and dried fruit aromas.

The Sidecar is the sour: the IBA specifies 50 ml cognac, 20 ml triple sec and 20 ml fresh lemon juice, shaken and strained into a chilled cocktail glass, which a coupe glass fills. The Stinger is the stirred pair, 50 ml cognac to 20 ml white crème de menthe, and the French Connection is 35 ml each of cognac and amaretto over ice.

The Brandy Alexander takes cognac, brown crème de cacao and fresh cream in equal parts, 30 ml each in the IBA’s Alexander, shaken. The Champagne Cocktail uses only 10 ml of cognac under 90 ml of champagne, with a sugar cube and bitters.

Cognac was the original base of the Sazerac: the IBA lists 50 ml cognac and notes that rye whiskey replaced it after the American Civil War because cognac became hard to obtain. The Vieux Carré keeps both, 30 ml each of rye and cognac with sweet vermouth, Bénédictine and bitters.

The older sours and punches use brandy in other ways: the Brandy Crusta with maraschino and orange curaçao, the Corpse Reviver No. 1 with calvados and sweet vermouth, the Jack Rose with applejack, lemon and grenadine, the Horse’s Neck with ginger ale, the Pisco Sour and Pisco Punch, and the milk-and-egg drinks, Brandy Milk Punch and Eggnog.

BNIA calls a fruity VSOP with little wood influence the ideal blend for drinking over ice or in cocktails. For cognac, the IBA specifications above name no grade: they say cognac. Cognac and the other darker spirits come onto the shelf when a recipe asks for them, as building your spirits collection puts it, and ABV and proof explained covers how to read the strengths.

Brandy runs through the cold months. The Brandy Alexander and the Champagne Cocktail sit in Christmas drinks and pairings, the Brandy Sling in winter cocktails, and the apple brandy of the Jack Rose in autumn cocktails.