Difference Between Cognac and Brandy

The world of spirits is intriguing. There is so much to learn that even a lifetime might fall short. Connoisseurs take years to know enough about wines. When you consider the entire realm of alcoholic beverages, spirits or drinks, whatever you may like to label them as, the task of exploring everything in the world becomes almost impossible.

Take beers for instance and you would come across light and strong, lager and draught, fresh brewed and even blended. Right from light yellow or almost transparent with no colors to dark black, beer comes in a wide range of shade. Take whiskeys for instance and you would come across dozens of blends. You would need years just to explore some of the finest single malts.

In the world of liquor, wine, spirits, beers or ales, scotch or whiskey, single malt or champagne, cocktails and liqueurs, you would often come across terms or labels that can be confusing or misleading if you are not accustomed with the reality. For instance, sparkling wine doesn’t automatically mean champagne. Australia or the United States may call a particular sparkling wine as champagne but if you are in France or England for instance, you would only be able to label something as champagne if it was grown and comes from Champagne, the province in France.

A similar reality comes to fore when you think of cognac and brandy. Cognac is rooted deep into the family traditions of millions of people, especially those whose family tree dates back a few hundred years. Brandy too has been at the very core of European lifestyles for centuries. It is only in the twentieth century that brandy has become popular elsewhere in the commonwealth.

What is Brandy?

Brandy is any spirit that has been distilled from wine. It is not a specific drink but a name for the family of spirits. The old name was brandywine. Brandy usually has 30% to 60% alcohol content in a bottle after the wine has been distilled.

What is Cognac?

Cognac is a type of brandy that has been made from wine which was made from Ugni Blanc grapes. While brandy can be made from just about any wine in the world, cognac can be made only from that wine which has been made from Ugni Blanc grapes. Such a wine is distilled in copper pots, not once but twice, and then the distilled wine is aged for at least two years in nothing else but oak barrels. Only then do you have cognac.

Difference between Cognac and Brandy

Every cognac is a brandy but every brandy is not a cognac. Also, it is absolutely fair for anyone to say that cognac is not exactly brandy but an offshoot of the family. In reality, the distillation process and the ageing method is not imperatively used to make every brandy you come across.

There are many similarities between cognac and brandy. The price of brandy is directly proportional to its quality. The more you pay the better brandy you shall taste. This applies for cognac as well. However, there are exceptions in both cases. The quality of the grapes, specific year and the exact outcome after the distillation and ageing process may spring up a surprisingly tasteful and high quality brandy and/or cognac despite it selling at a relatively affordable price.

Today, it has been widely accepted that cognac and brandy are two separate drinks. What we call brandy cannot be cognac and what we call cognac cannot be brandy. In effect what has happened is every drink that is classified as brandy is not cognac. A cognac will be called so and not be labeled as brandy.

In most parts of the world, cognac is used as a label for any brandy that has been distilled in the copper pots, twice, and then has been aged for two years in oak barrels. The label is deemed legal and acceptable. That is why there are some people who try to make their own cognac. However, in Europe, you can only call a bottle of brandy as cognac if it comes from the town of Cognac in France, the wine from which the brandy has been distilled to must have been made of Ugni Blanc grapes and the process must be the same as that of making cognac.

Brandies and cognacs have a distinct labeling system. Different brands can have their own labels but there is an industry norm. For cognacs, the traditional system is ‘VS’ would be very special and aged at least 2 years which is not the average but the minimum, ‘VSOP’ which is very special old pale and aged at least 4 years and ‘XO’ which means extra old and what has been aged at least 6 years. Many premium cognacs are aged for more than twenty years. For brandies, the labels star with AC. Such a brandy is aged less than two years and thus is younger than VS or very special cognac.

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