Spirit Realm
Brandy
Explore by Spirit
Brandy
Brandy is where the Spirit Realm connects straight back into the Wine Realm: wine itself becomes the raw material, and every choice that shapes a wine's fruit, acidity and structure carries through into what gets distilled.
Vineyard → Wine → Distillation → Barrel → Brandy. Understanding wine's own forces and choices is the first half of understanding any brandy.
Why does the same grape variety produce a completely different brandy depending on the wine it started as?
- Grape Variety
- Vineyard
- Climate
- Vintage
- Soil
- Water
- Wine Style — The base wine before distillation
- Fermentation
- Distillation
- Still Type
- Cuts
- Oak
- Maturation
- Blending
- Fruit
- Floral
- Oak
- Spice
- Body
- Sweetness
- Complexity
The Wine Behind the Brandy
A brandy's character starts long before the still — in the vineyard forces (grape variety, vintage, climate, soil) and winemaking choices that shaped the base wine it was distilled from.
A crisp, high-acid base wine and a soft, fruit-forward one will distil into two very different spirits, even using an identical still and an identical cask.