grapes provide the basis for a wealth of distilled spirits the world over. They are most common in wine-growing regions, where distillation can add value in two main situations: an abundance of grapes unfit for quality wine production, or an abundance of grape marc—the skins, seeds, and other leftover solids from winemaking. Like any fruit distillates or wine itself, the best grape spirits capture the inherent qualities of their ingredients with clarity, precision, and deliciousness.
Grape distillates fall under the category of brandy, a term used to describe a distillate of any sort of fruit. When used alone, however, it always implies a grape spirit. They can be produced from fermented grape juice (wine) or pomace—the skins, seeds, stems, and other solids left over from wine production.
History
Along with various cereal grains, palm sap, sugar cane, and agave, grapes are one of the most anciently and widely used materials for distillation of spirits. To the degree that distillation was practiced in Greco-Roman antiquity, it was based on grape wine, and there is some evidence that grape wine was distilled in China in the first millennium ce. Certainly, when medieval Europe discovered, or rediscovered, the art, it was grape wine that was the first and preferred distillation material. It was also the earliest base material to support a European spirits industry, with the development of brandy distilling in southern France, the Iberian Peninsula, and Greece and liqueur-making in Italy. See amaro and Armagnac.
The human urge to wring out the maximum amount of usefulness from any given material meant that wine distilling was often accompanied by a secondary effort to recover alcohol from the leftovers and waste from winemaking. The resulting pomace spirits were historically not well regarded, often with reason. Consider the description Pierre Duplais gives in his 1871 Treatise on the Manufacture and Distillation of Alcoholic Liquors of the “very objectionable” method common among French vintners: “The marc [i.e., pomace], on leaving the press, is borne to a deep pit dug in the earth and sometimes plastered with clay, in which it is packed and pressed as it is brought. When the press is full, it is covered with straw, vine leaves, and twigs, over which is thrown a thick bed of earth to prevent contact with the air. The whole is left to ferment for about six weeks.” It’s not hard to imagine the quality of distillate produced from the resulting fermented muck. Fortunately, conditions have improved since.
Methods
The best wine-based distillates tend to come from regions not associated with quality wine production. That’s because distillation requires grapes that are more acidic and less ripe than would make a pleasant wine. Cognac may be the most famous example, made mostly from the rather dull-tasting ugni blanc. While it and the region’s other local grapes will never make a head-turning wine in cognac’s cold Atlantic clime, their high acidity allows for the grapes to remain pristine from vineyard to still, without the use of sulfur dioxide (a commonly used preservative in winemaking that’s banned in cognac). These sharp-tasting grapes are first fermented into wine; distillation then further concentrates the wine’s aromatic compounds. In order to be considered a brandy, the EU decrees that wine-based distillates be aged in wooden receptacles for at least six months. Many spend far longer than that in barrels, where oxidation as well as compounds present in the wood mellow the spirit, bringing to it warm notes of caramel, vanilla, and spice. In other parts of the world, grape distillates are not customarily aged.
Distillates made from grape pomace are more common, and they can be made either by fermenting the moist pomace directly or mixing it with water. When pomace has not had a chance to ferment—as with the pomace of many white wines, where the skins are separated from the juice early in the winemaking process—it needs to be fermented before distillation.
The resulting marc is most often presented as a white spirit, without barrel aging, the flavors focused on the aromatic compounds concentrated in the grape skins. In many places, grape marcs are varietally labeled, offering a unique window into the nature of the grape used.
Regional Distillates
While the Dutch take credit for the name “brandy,” a corruption of brandewijn, or “burnt wine,” the French are most closely associated with the spirit, with more than thirty-five legally protected brandy appellations. Cognac, named for the region along the Atlantic just north of Bordeaux, is the most famous, followed by Armagnac, a single-distilled brandy made in Gascony from a similar blend of ugni blanc, folle blanch, and Colombard with baco 22A, bottled at 50 percent ABV. Regions more known for wine, such as Burgundy, often have their own unique eau-de-vie de vin or fine, distillates made from wine, or marc, distilled from grape pomace. Grape distillates are also key to making many of France’s famed fortified wines, mistelles or vins de liqueur such as macvin, pineau de Charentes, and ratafia: the addition of distilled grape spirit kills off any sugar-eating yeasts in the wine or must, resulting in a stable, sweet, grape-based drink traditionally served as an aperitif or digestive.
Spain out-distills both countries with brandy. The country’s celebrated brandy de Jerez is rather confusingly made from grapes grown and distilled in La Mancha, in central Spain, and then aged in Jerez. It’s in this hot, humid southern region where the brandy takes on its characteristic flavors, the result of long aging in used sherry casks with regular circulation through a solera system, whereby younger and older brandies are slowly blended together. Brandy del Penèdes, grown and distilled in northeastern Spain, sometimes employs a solera system as well but tends to be lighter and leaner in flavors. Spain also has a long history of pomace-based spirits; the first known documented evidence of “licor de orujo” dates to 1693. While it’s found all over the country, Galicia claims the most esteemed version, supported by a GI as well as a yearly festival in Potes.
In nearby Portugal, the locals produce aguardente vínica, a grape-based brandy used mainly to fortify port wines, although sometimes it’s aged in oak and bottled as aguardente vínica velha. More popular is aguardente bagaçeira, distilled from pomace.
The Spanish conquistadors exported their knowledge of winegrowing and distillation to South America after arriving in the 1500s. Their vines grew particularly well in Peru, where pisco, a wine distillate, is considered the national spirit, supported by a GI; however, Chile also claims pisco to be its own. Bolivia focuses on singani, a clear distillation of the fragrant muscat of Alexandria grape, while Mexico excels with wood-aged brandies. The Spanish influence continues right up the coast into California, where brandy production dates to the 1800s. At least one California company also distills vodka from grapes.
The Dutch also played a part in spreading distilling knowledge around the world, most notably in South Africa. The country remains a powerhouse in the production of brandy, which they call brandewijn.
Germany and Austria have their own version of grape-based brandy called Weinbrand; Asbach, Germany’s best-known company, claims that founder Hugo Asbach coined the term after the Treaty of Versailles outlawed the use of cognac outside of France. (Asbach was clearly a savvy marketer: he is also said to have introduced the liquor-filled chocolate truffle in the 1920s, targeted at women, who weren’t supposed to be drinking in public.)
Eastern Europe is also rich in grape-based spirits, notably pálinka in Hungary and pálenka in Czechia; Romanian vinars (brandy); and an array of grape-based spirits that fall under variations of the word rakia/rakya that turn up from Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Croatia. Go south and rakia turns into raki in the Mediterranean countries and tsipouro and tsikoudia in Greece and Cyprus, and it is often flavored with herbs and spices, especially licorice-flavored ones such as anise and fennel. See ouzo.
See also pomace brandy; marc; eau-de-vie; and brandy, grape.
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By: Tara Q. Thomas