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Spanish Brandies

Brandy de Jerez  is made by the Sherry houses centered around the city of Jerez de la  Frontera in the southwest corner of Spain. Virtually all Brandy de Jerez;  however, is made from wines produced elsewhere in Spain -- primarily from  the Airen grape in La Mancha and Extremadura -- as the local Sherry grapes  are too valuable to divert into Brandy production. Nowadays most of the  distilling is likewise done elsewhere in Spain using column stills. It is  then shipped to Jerez for aging in used Sherry casks in a solera system  similar to that used for Sherry wine. A solera is a series of large casks  (called butts), each holding a slightly older spirit than the previous one  beside it. When brandy is drawn off (racked) from the last butt (no more  than a third of the volume is removed) it is replenished with brandy drawn  from the next butt in line all the way down the solera line to the first  butt, where newly distilled brandy is added. This system of racking the  brandy through a series of casks blends together a variety of vintages  (some soleras have over 30 stages) and results in a speeding up of the  maturation process.

 

Basic Brandy de  Jerez Solera must age for a minimum of six months, Reserva for one year  and Gran Reserva for a minimum of three years. In practice, the best  Reservas and Gran Reservas are frequently aged for 12 to 15 years. The  lush, slightly sweet and fruity notes to be found in Brandy de Jerez come  not only from aging in Sherry casks, but also from the judicious use of  fruit-based flavor concentrates and oak essence (boise).

 

Penedès  Brandy comes from the Penedès region of Catalonia in the northeast  corner of Spain near Barcelona. Modeled after the Cognacs of France and  made from a mix of regional grapes and locally-grown Ugni Blanc of Cognac,  it is distilled in pot stills. One of the two local producers (Torres)  ages in soleras consisting of butts made from French Limousin oak, whereas  the other (Mascaro) ages in the standard non-solera manner, but also in  Limousin oak. The resulting Brandy is heartier than Cognac, but leaner and  drier than Brandy de Jerez.