The difference between brandy and cognac is not as great as it seems. Connoisseurs say that any cognac can be called brandy, but only one specific type of brandy is called cognac.
The emergence of brandy
The first brandy was accidentally made by Dutch sailors, who decided to bring home from France some local wine that they liked. Since the wine was often spoiled during a long voyage, besides, the export duties were quite high, the enterprising Dutch decided to re-distill this drink in order to reduce the weight (and hence the size of duties) and eliminate the possibility of spoilage.
They liked the result very much, so in the future they began to experiment with the repeated distillation of different types of wine in order to obtain a drink of a certain strength and taste. The word "brandy" itself means "burnt wine". Currently, there are three types of this drink - grape brandy, fruit brandy and pomace brandy. It can be said that the word "brandy" is usually understood as a class of drinks, and not any particular sort.
The main differences
Cognac is a subtype of brandy because it can only be made from specific grapes that grow in a specific area. In addition, the cognac production technology is strictly regulated and does not tolerate deviations from the protocol. To make cognac, pressed grapes are fermented, getting young wine after three weeks, which is distilled twice to obtain cognac alcohol. The resulting alcohol is poured into barrels made of very old oak wood, it is believed that it is the special structure of the wood that gives the cognac its characteristic aroma. No additional ingredients are added to this drink.
But the rules for the production of brandy simply do not exist. This name simply means double distillation technology. Therefore, under this brand, drinks of the most different categories can be found. In addition, a variety of flavors and dyes can be included in the brandy, very often a special caramel is added to it in order to obtain a cognac-like aroma. Brandy is infused in barrels, but they can even be made of plastic. You should be careful when ordering this drink and, if possible, choose only familiar and proven varieties, because the range of brandy tastes is very wide.
The cost of cognac, which is produced in one place according to a complex protocol, usually far exceeds the cost of brandy. But this does not make the brandy a low-quality drink, there are many very famous and popular brands of brandy that are highly valued all over the world.
