Brandy - Solera Gran Reserva from Spain

Brandy is a general term for distilled wine, usually between 40 and 60 percent ethyl alcohol by volume. In addition to wine, brandy can also be made from grape pomace or fermented fruit juice. Unless specified otherwise, brandy is made from grape wine. Brandy is normally consumed as an after dinner drink. Brandy made from wine is generally colored with caramel coloring to imitate the effect of long aging in wooden casks, pomace and fruit brandies are generally drunk unaged, and are not usually colored.

The origins of brandy are unclear, and tied to the development of distillation. Concentrated alcoholic beverages were known in ancient Greece and Rome and may have a history going back to ancient Babylon. Brandy as it is known today first began to appear in the 12th century and became generally popular in the 14th century.

Initially wine was distilled as a preservation method and as a way to make the wine easier for merchants to transport. It was also thought that wine was originally distilled to lessen the tax which was assessed by volume. The intent was to add the water removed by distillation back to the brandy shortly before consumption. It was discovered that after having been stored in wooden casks, the resulting product had improved over the original distilled spirit. Also, the distillation process does not just remove water, but leads to the formation and break up of dozens of aroma compounds fundamentally altering the composition of the distillate. This is why unaged wine spirits, unaged brandy, diluted back to wine alcohol strength tastes nothing like the original wine.