brandy de Jerez is a traditional Spanish spirit distilled from wines grown anywhere in Spain but aged in the Jerez region in the south of the country. Distilling in Spain may date back to the period of Muslim rule, from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, but the first recorded sale of spirit dates from 1580. The origin story that is widely accepted in the spirit’s home region traces it to an unsold brandy from Pedro Domecq Loustau (destined for an export client in Holland, naturally), subsequently stored in sherry barrels for a decade or more. In 1874 it was bottled and sold as “Coñac Fundador” (Spain only stopped labeling its brandies thus in the 1970s). See coñac. The success of the brandy was enough to spark the growth of a category that eventually received its DO (denominación de origen) status in 1987. Brandy de Jerez has enjoyed great domestic popularity but is less well known in international markets.
The specific character of brandy de Jerez is not dependent upon its base material, usually the innocuous airen grape, and only occasionally sherry’s primary grape, palomino. Those grapes are reliable for providing acidity, at least, but otherwise work more or less as a blank canvas for aging. That is done in old sherry barrels that have long held intensely aromatic and oxidative amontillados or olorosos. Some brands will add a proportion of barrels that held the sweet and treacly Pedro Ximénez (PX). Unsurprisingly, brandy de Jerez ranges from somewhat sweet to distinctly so, though total residual sugar can be no more than 3.5 percent by volume.
botas. Jerez laws allow some latitude, and so though these botas might have contained sherry for only a month or two, in practice, they have generally held sherry for at least one year, and most barrel stocks are an average of at least three years old.The spirit is distilled in either continuous or (less frequently) traditional pot stills (called alquitaras) and is labeled and classified based upon the percentage of each. Each base spirit is distilled once in order to retain flavor and aroma compounds (with minimums required). The classifications are as follows:
Holandas: distilled in either alquitaras or continuous stills to no more than 70 percent ABV with significant volatile substances (2–6 g/l)
destilados: distilled in continuous stills (usually) to between 70 percent and 86 percent ABV, with measurable volatile substances
aguardientes : distilled in continuous stills to more than 90 percent ABV with few volatile substances
Those spirits are blended to create labeled categories of:
brandy de Jerez solera: at least 50 percent Holandas by alcoholic strength, aged more than six months in barrel
brandy de Jerez solera reserva: at least 75 percent Holandas, aged more than one year in barrel
brandy de Jerez solera gran reserve: 100 percent Holandas, aged more than three years in barrel
Here, too, the authorities require minimums of volatile substances (responsible for aromas and flavors) in increasing amounts for each type. Bodegas will most often purchase these spirits for aging in their cellars, though a few do at least some of their own distilling or are affiliated with distillers.
Most brandy de Jerez goes into the barrel at around 53 percent alcohol by volume. The humid conditions in the bodegas that nurture the flor that typifies fino and manzanilla sherries also provide for significant evaporation of alcohol when brandy is aged there (up to 4.5 percent per year).
Brandy de Jerez is also greatly influenced by the solera system, in which aged brandies are commingled through the rocios or sacas process—a portion (usually one-third or less) is drained from the oldest barrel once or twice a year and replaced with brandy from the next oldest barrel, which is then topped up with the next oldest barrel and so on. This practice can obviate specific age statements but also adds to the complexity of the spirit and reflects a practice long utilized to nurture sherry types. See maturation.
Current annual sales of brandy de Jerez are less than 10 million liters. Solera accounts for just under half of that; solera reserva is over one-third of that volume, and solera gran reserva provides the remainder.
As sales of brandy de Jerez (like those of its kin, sherry) have slowed over the last half century, the average age of this distinctive spirit has increased. Experimentation has also followed with brands specifying barrel type (amontillado, PX, oloroso barrels), but so too have some houses moved to lower-alcohol offerings (lower than 36 percent), preventing brands such as Osborne’s Veterano or Gonzalez Byass’s Soberano from being labeled as brandy de Jerez, or even brandy at all.
See also brandy.
Epstein, Becky Sue. Brandy: A Global History. London: Reaktion, 2014.
Saldaña Sánchez, César, ed. The Big Book of Sherry Wines. N.p.: Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (Spain), 2006.
Saldaña Sánchez, César. Private correspondence with author, May-October 2020.
By: Doug Frost