brandy

brandy

1. an alcoholic drink consisting of spirit distilled from grape wine

2. a distillation of wines made from other fruits

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

brandy

[′bran·dē]

(chemical engineering)

A potable alcoholic beverage distilled from wine or fermented fruit juice, usually after the aging of the wine in wooden casks; cognac is a brandy distilled from wines made from grapes from the Cognac region of France.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Brandy

 

(Russian, kon’iak), a strong alcoholic beverage distilled primarily from dry white grape wines and aged in oaken barrels or cisterns with oaken staves. During the aging process brandy, which has an alcoholic content of 65–70 percent by volume is enriched with tannins and acquires its characteristic taste, bouquet, and color. At the same time, oxidizing processes are influenced by oxygen from the air. Distilled water is used to lower the alcoholic content of brandy. The production of brandy is especially widespread in France, in Charente Department (administrative center, Cognac), where the fine French brandy known as cognac is made.

In the Soviet Union two basic kinds of brandies are made, depending on the length of aging: ordinary brandies (from three to five years old, with the age indicated by asterisks) and fine brandies. The latter include KV, or aged brandy (from six to seven years), KWK, or highest quality aged brandy (eight to ten years), and KC, or old brandy (aged more than ten years). High-quality brandies are made in Armenia, Georgia, Moldavia, Azerbaijan, the Ukraine, and the Northern Caucasus. Other countries producing brandy include Italy, Spain, and Greece.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.