Brandy was probably invented to dodge a tax, then tasted better than planned
Merchants boiled water out of wine to make it cheaper to ship and, it is thought, to cut duties charged by volume, planning to add the water back later. Stored in wooden casks, the concentrate improved so much that nobody bothered. The drink was brandy, and a test using gunpowder gave us the word proof.
Distillation was known in classical times but rarely used for drinks until the 15th century. Distilling does more than remove water: aromatic compounds form and break down, while pigments, sugars and salts stay behind in the still, so the spirit tastes quite unlike its source wine. A 1728 encyclopedia described drawing off a sixth of the liquid as spirit of wine, then redistilling it in a water bath. Purity was checked by setting the spirit alight; better still, a pinch of gunpowder underneath had to ignite once the alcohol burned off.
Modern production begins with a special base wine made from early-picked grapes, high in acid and low in sugar, and kept low in sulphur because sulphur reacts with copper pot stills. A first distillation yields low wine at 28 to 30 percent alcohol. The second separates the flow into heads, heart and tails. The harsh, roughly 83 percent heads and the weak tails are recycled into the next batch, and only the aromatic heart is kept for ageing. Finished brandy runs at 35 to 60 percent, sometimes coloured with caramel to mimic age. Cognac and Armagnac from south-western France are the most famous.
Brandy had a darker commercial past. In the early 16th century French brandy, stronger and easier to ship than Portuguese fortified wine, became a key currency in the Atlantic triangle trade, used to pay canoemen and guards on the African coast, until cheaper rum displaced it by the late 17th century.
By the late 19th century French and Spanish brandies ruled western markets, while eastern Europe drank spirits from around the Black Sea. The Ararat brand began in Yerevan in 1877, and David Sarajishvili opened a factory in Tbilisi in 1884. At the Yalta Conference, Stalin gave Churchill an Armenian brandy called Dvin, and Churchill liked it so much he reportedly received 400 bottles a year.
Source: Brandy
