The Primitive Distillates
Origin: 800 BC
Ingredients: various ferments
Around 800 BC distilled alcoholic beverages were being made in Asia. These included:
* Skhou: In the Caucasus, from kefir (mare's milk)
* Sochou/Shochu: In Japan, from sake (rice)
* Saut/Sautchoo: In China, from tehoo (rice, millet)
* Arrack: In India, from toddy (rice with molasses or palm sap)
* Arika: By Tartars, from koumiss (mare's milk)
Distilled Mead
Origin: Britain, 500 AD
Ingredients: mead (honey)
Aqua Vini
Spanish forerunner of brandy.
Brandy
Origin: Italy, 1000s
Ingredients: fruit wine (unaged)
The word comes from the Dutch "brandewijn" meaning "burnt wine."
Grape Brandy
Origin: likely the first Western distilled beverage
Ingredients: grape wine
Cognac
Origin: Cognac, France, 1500s
Ingredients: wine (7.5% ABV, high acidity)
Process: Pot double-distill to 70% ABV, dilute to 50%, age in oak 2 years (minimum) to 5 years or more (Very Superior Old Pale--VSOP). Dilute (if necessary) to 40% ABV, color with caramel, add a small amount of sugar for taste.
Armagnac
Origin: Armagnac region, France, 1411 (first mention)
Ingredients: wine
Process: Pot single-distill to 53% ABV, age in sappy, strong black oak. Outside of France, armagnac is sometimes made in a column still, and with caramel syrup added.
Armagnac is generally drier than Cognac.
Brandy de Jerez
Origin: Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
Ingredients: primarily the Airen grape of La Mancha and Extremadura
Process: Column distill (often elsewhere in Spain, then ship to Jerez) and age in sherry casks for minimums of 6 months, one year for Reserva, three years for Gran Reserva. In practice the best Reservas and Gran Reservas are aged 12-15 years.
Grapes from other regions are usually used as the local sherry grapes are too valuable for brandy production.
Metaxa
Origin: Greece, 1888 (invented by Spyros Metaxa)
Ingredients: wine
Process: Pot distill, flavor with Muscat wine, age at least three years, flavor with anise, rose leaves and other spices.
Grapes from other regions are usually used as the local sherry grapes are too valuable for brandy production.
Fruit Brandy
Ingredients: non-grape fruit wine
Process: Age minimally, and rarely in wood (fine calvados is an exception).
Not to be confused with fruit-flavored grape brandy.
Eau-de-vie
Origin: Alsace region, France, 1553 (first mention)
Ingredients: non-grape fruit wine
Process: Do not age.
"Water of life" in French, eau-de-vie is colorless. The term is also used in France to refer to brandy in general.
Calvados
Origin: Lower Normandy region, France
Ingredients: apple cider
Process: Age in oak casks for minimum of two years.
The best-known fruit brandy, calvados is made from the local small, tart apples.
Kirschwasser
Origin: Germany
Ingredients: black cherry
Applejack
Origin: United States, colonial period
Ingredients: hard cider (fermented apples)
The word comes from "jacking," a nickname for the freeze distillation procedure originally used.
Rakija
Origin: Balkans
Ingredients: various fruits
Often spelled "rakia", many varieties are popular on the Balkan peninsula where it may be made from grapes, plums (known as slivovitz, usually from the same sloe plum used to flavor "sloe gin" wink , apricots, pears, quince, figs, and walnuts.
Pomace
Ingredients: pomace wine (made from grape pulp, skins, stems and seeds)
The "poor man's brandy," pomace was originally something for wine makers to do with their grapes after pressing.
Grappa
Origin: Bassano del Grappa, Italy
Ingredients: pomace wine
Process: Don't age, or age 2-4 years.
Marc
Origin: France
Ingredients: pomace wine
Vodka
Origin: Russia, 1400s
Ingredients: rye or wheat, sometimes potato or another grain (traditionally the cheapest starch available)
Probably produced since the 12th century for medicinal purposes, the word comes from the Russian diminutive for "water." In the 1930s Vodka became popular in the United States where it is government-defined as a neutral spirit without distinctive characteristics.
Whiskey
Origin: Ireland and Scotland, around 1500; known as aqua vitae, uisge beatha or usquebaugh (all meaning "water of life" wink until the 1700s (name shortened from "usquebaugh" to "usky" and eventually "whiskey" wink .
Ingredients: barley, corn, rye
Spelled "whisky" in Scotland, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand.
Single-Malt Scotch
Origin: Scotland, 1500
Ingredients: 100% barley malt
Process: Under the Scotch Whiskey Act 1988: pot distill to no more than 94.8% ABV, age in oak for at least three years, dilute with water and add nothing but caramel for color.
Currently there are only about 115 operating distilleries producing single-malt scotch.
Blended Scotch
Origin: Scotland, 1860s
Ingredients: single malt scotch (30-60%), grain alcohol (from corn)
Process: Mix several malt whiskies from different distillers with grain spirits (more neutral in flavor) produced in column stills.
Legal since the 1860s, the motivation for blending was originally economic but it also met the demand outside of Scotland for a milder spirit.
Irish Whiskey
Origin: Ireland
Ingredients: barley (60%), barley malt (40%)
Process: Dry the malt (don't roast), and triple distill.
Milder than single malt and some blended scotch.
Rye
Origin: North America
Ingredients: rye (minimum 51%), barley malt
Process: By law: distill at less than 80% ABV and age for at least two years in new charred barrels.
Some rye is bottled and marketed directly, but most is blended into other whiskies for character and structure.
Bourbon
Origin: Bourbon County, Kentucky, United States
Ingredients: corn (minimum 51%), barley malt
Process: By law: distill at less than 80% ABV and age for at least two years in new charred barrels. In practice, aged at least four years.
Tennessee Whiskey
Origin: Tennessee, United States
Ingredients: corn (minimum 51%), barley malt
Process: By law: distill at less than 80% ABV, filtered through bed of sugar maple charcoal, age for at least two years in new charred barrels.
Canadian Whiskey
Origin: Canada
Ingredients: corn or wheat with rye, barley, or barley malt
Process: Usually: blend from different whiskies of different ages; by law: age in used oak barrels for minimum three years (four to six in practice). Export in barrel or bottle in Canada at 43.4% ABV.
Rum
Origin: Americas, 1500s
Ingredients: molasses or sugar cane
Process: Distill in continuous still to about 85% ABV, filter, blend, and leach through charcoal for "silver" rum, age for 1 year (light-bodied) to 6 years (heavy), add caramel (if desired) to deepen color and flavor. For Jamaican Rum ferment longer and pot distill to lower purity.
Settlers in the New World began to make rum because barley had not yet been cultivated and molasses was plentiful.
Gin
Origin: Holland
Ingredients: juniper berries, various grains
The word come from the Dutch "genever" which means juniper. The number of botanicals in a gin ranges from 4 to 20.
Genever
Origin: Holland
Ingredients: malt wine (malted barley, wheat, corn, and rye)
Process: Pot double- or triple-distill at low proof, distill once more with juniper to about 48% ABV.
A few genevers from Holland and Belgium are distilled directly from juniper berries.
London Dry Gin
Origin: England
Ingredients: grain (corn, barley, malt, wheat, or rye), juniper berries, botanicals
Process: Column distill to 90 or 94% ABV, pot distill with juniper and botanicals, dilute, bottle. Generally, don't age. For some high quality gins juniper and botanicals go in a chamber in the still which the vapor passes through before condensation.
Plymouth Gin
Origin: Plymouth, England
Process: Copper pot distill.
Originally the local gin style of the English Channel port of Plymouth, now produced only by Plymouth, Coates < Co., which also controls the rights to the term Plymouth Gin.
Mezcal
Origin: Mexico
Ingredients: juice of any species of agave plant (a.k.a. maguey, pronounced muh-GAY)
Process: Cultivate agave 8-10 years, depending on the type, cut off flower stalk when it appears at plant's sexual maturity--growth is redirected into central stalk which swells with sweet, juicy pulp. After swelling, cut plant from roots and remove the long sword-shaped leaves, leaving the piña ("pineapple," so-called because it resembles a giant green and white pineapple) which weighs 25-100 pounds. Quarter piña, bake in underground oven heated with wood charcoal (for mezcal's distinctive smoky taste), and crush and shred to extract the sweet juice aguamiel ("honey water" wink . Ferment and pot distill agave juice to 55% ABV with water only (high-quality) or add sugar ("mixto" wink . If needed add natural flavorings and caramel for color.
The famous "worm" found in some bottles ("con gusano" wink is actually the larva of one of two moths that live on the agave plant. Reason for the worm is obscure, but it does serve as proof of high alcohol content--if worm remains intact, percentage of alcohol in the spirit is high enough to preserve the pickled worm. Top-quality mezcals do not include a worm in the bottle.
Tequila
Origin: Jalisco, Mexico
Ingredients: juice of blue agave (agave tequiliana)
Process: Similar to mezcal but bake piña in steam oven or autoclave (oversized pressure cooker) until all starch is converted to sugar.
* Silver/Blanco: Age 60 days, less, or not at all.
* Gold (usually a mixto): Unaged silver tequila plus caramel for color.
* Reposado: Age in wooden tanks or casks for legal two months (three to nine months for better quality brands). Best-selling tequila in Mexico.
* Añejo: Age in wood at least one year (one and a half to three years for high-quality mixtos, up to four years for high-quality agaves).
By Mexican law all 100% agave or aged Tequila is bottled in Mexico. All 100% agave tequila is labeled as such (otherwise it is a "mixto," made from fermented agave juice and other sugars, usually cane sugar with water). Aging tequila more than four years is controversial; most Tequila producers oppose it to protect the distinctive earthy and vegetal agave flavor.
