12 Types Of Brandy, Explained

Brandy is a favorite spirit of many and is a chameleon that can have a multitude of flavor notes as myriad as the fermented fruits it can be made from. It can elevate everything from your chocolate milk recipes to a carton of brandied cherries. It's also pretty good on its own, imbibed "neat" preferably, and taking centerstage on your palate.

Although brandy's humble origins began with distilled wine made from grapes, it can be made from several different fruits relative to the regions in which it's produced. Variations may incorporate a fruit mash or pomace, which The Chicago Tribune describes as being the residual mash left over following the pressing of fruit into "young, rough, [or] unclarified wine." The pomace is left to ferment for traditionally dictated periods of time. Fortunately, that just means there's a relatively wide selection of brandy to explore. 

According to The Ottawa Citizen, once Dutch traders caught on, they began sharing the sweet libation they called brandewijn, or "burned wine," throughout northern Europe — named so after the process of distillation where wine was heated over a fire to remove impurities before being aged in stainless steel vats or oak. The Dutch were responsible for sharing Cognac with the rest of the world. With that said, let's take a look at what the full scope of brandy has to offer and what makes each type so special.

Calvados's American cousin by way of New Jersey is applejack brandy. A story by The New Jersey Digest points to William Laird, a Scottish immigrant, and distiller who settled in Monmouth County, NJ, as America's founding father of applejack brandy. Laird's good use of the abundance of apple orchards in the area allowed his hooch operation to grow into a family dynasty that — thanks to Laird's great-grandson Robert Laird — kept George Washington and his troops warm and fuzzy during the Revolutionary War. America's first president was a fan of Laird family brandy and wrote a whole letter held in the National Archives about what he called the "sweet cyder."

A New York Times article reveals the "jack" in applejack refers to the distillation process colonists used to produce brandy. Jacking didn't involve heating the cider but rather freezing it. Instead of the French method of heating cider until it condensed with higher concentrations of alcohol, American distillers would collect the slushy runoff in a barrel until the alcohol content was high enough.

Like its French forebear, applejack can be great on its own in a glass with no ice. However, we would be remiss not to mention that applejack also makes a great cocktail mixer. Try it with vermouth, yellow chartreuse, grenadine, and lemon juice for a herbaceous twist on a sweeter Jack Rose recipe.

Jerez is a Spanish city in Andalusia, Spain, and the birthplace of Brandy de la Jerez, also known as sherry brandy. From the early 8th to 15 century, the Moors ruled large swaths of Andalusia and, according to Forbes, brought knowledge of distillation to the Spanish in the 8th century, making them potentially the first country to produce brandy. The jury's still out on that, but no one can question the popularity of the brandy. Forbes notes some 30 producers — all located within what's known as "the sherry triangle," where all official Brandy de Jerez must be made — make around 80 million bottles a year. 

According to the government of Spain's official site for Brandy de Jerez, it's made from either Airén or Palomino grapes, regional grapes that are distilled in column or copper pot stills under intense heat. From these grapes, producers can create three types of brandy de Jerez labeled according to the amount of time the distilled brandy has been aged in oak sherry casks. 

Although Brandy de Jerez can be described as intense, Spain's official site for Brandy de Jerez information advises imbibing it in a tumbler glass on the rocks or chilled in a shot glass to dilute the intensity. The tried and true way of leveraging the strong character of any liquor into a more manageable but interesting cocktail always works too. This Don't Shenaut cocktail recipe is one you "don't" want to avoid.  

The most prestigious brandy on this list is Cognac, named after the town of Cognac in France. According to Brittanica, there are very specific French laws around what grape variety is grown and used in the distillation process (ugni blanc grapes), how it's distilled (twice in special pot stills), how long and where it's aged (in Limousin oak for at least two years), and where the whole thing takes place (Charente and Charente-Maritime) in order to be considered Cognac. So while every Cognac can be considered a brandy, Cognac as a type of brandy can only come from Cognac, France.

International distiller Hennessy follows the traditional Cognac production season (October 1st to March 31st each year) and has enlisted an expert tasting committee for the last 200 years to ensure the quality of every batch. Basic 2-year-old Cognac is considered V.S. (very special) according to Town and Country, 4-year-old Cognac is V.S.O.P (very special old pale), and X.O. (extra old). The classifications hint at the quality.

Strong but smooth, we think Cognac is a brandy deserving of taking the spotlight in a snifter glass with no ice. Of course, There's nothing wrong with a good Sidecar cocktail, or if you're up for something new, mix yourself a Between the Sheets recipe for a more citrusy kick.

Business Wire begins the story of pisco — which means "bird" in Quechua, an Indigenous language of South American Indians — in 1553 after the Spanish arrived in Peru with grape vines from the Canary Islands to make themselves wine. According to SFGate, Peruvian pisco is made from eight grape varietals from five coastal regions with 500 producers in 42 valleys. Unlike the French brandies, Forbes explains that pisco goes through a single distillation in massive copper pot stills called alambique and is stored for a minimum of three months before it's ready for bottling.

Now's probably a good time to talk about the other pisco capital, Chile. According to Culture Trip, Chileans claim to be the originators of pisco based on a border dispute between the two countries going all the way back to the 1500s and believe an Indigenous Chilean civilization called the Aymaras were first to the pisco game. Whatever the case, Chilean and Peruvian pisco production differ in a few ways. Chilean pisco doesn't adhere to single distillation, which means a more potent alcohol content. It can be aged in everything from glass containers to wood casks and ceramics. Every distillery is also expected to use grapes grown in their vineyards, meaning different grape varietals like muscat, torontel, or Pedro Ximénez are used. We don't have to engage in friendly rivalries over who made what first. We just make pisco sours. 

If you're thinking kanyak is suspiciously similar to Cognac, you would be half right. Kanyak, the Armenian Cognac according to The Daily Beast, is derived from regional grapes (Voskehat, Garan Dmak, Mskhali, Kangun, and Rkatsitelithat) that have been fermented into white wine, distilled in large stills, and left in oak casts for up to a decade before being imbibed. The relationship to French Cognac apparently goes back to 1825 when Armenia — under Russian rule at the time — had its first taste of Hennessy imported from France.

The first Armenian brandy distillers, Nerses Tairan and Vasily Tairov took what they learned working with French winemakers in France into their business in 1877, setting the stage for Russian businessman Nikolay Shustov to make it big with his own Armenian brandy Shustov & Sons. Shustov and Sons grew to be the largest producer of Armenian brandy in the world (the Yerevan Brandy Company), and according to Forbes, has the most brandy distilleries in the world, including Cognac, France. 

According to Scientific American, the history of brandy liquor started in France as a medicinal elixir derived from fermented grapes. It was so respected by French physicians of that period it was called l'eau de vie, meaning "the water of life." Scientific American goes on to explain that back in the early days, before alcohol content could be determined through scientific means, the way to determine ABV in eau-de-vie was to pour some out over a little gunpowder and light it on fire. The concept of "proof" stems from this practice where if the gunpowder remained on fire after the liquid burned away, the brandy was considered "above proof," or, as we now say, overproof.

However, according to Difford's Guide, eau-de-vie is a term used in France to describe brandies made from fruits other than grapes. You could say every eau-de-vie is a brandy, but not every brandy is an eau-de-vie. Mashed fruits are fermented with yeast, and the wine produced from that fermentation is distilled by high heat. Once the aging process is complete, according to France Today, the eau-de-vie is diluted by pure spring water before being refrigerated and filtered before being bottled. If this list of brandies has piqued your interest, check out this great list of the best brandy bottles around.