Last night’s class was devoted to the study of brandy, which is, by definition, a spirit made from the distillation of grapes. Among the finest brandies are Cognac and Armagnac, both from France. The former is located north of Bordeaux, while Armagnac comes from the Dordorgne, east of Bordeaux. These spirits are aged a minimum of six months after distillation and are often bottled much later, with bottles labeled XO containing a blend of distillate aged a minimum of 7 years for Cognac and 6 years for Armagnac.

We tasted through eight brandies, primarily Cognacs, along with Grappa (made from the skins of grapes already pressed into wine), Armagnac and a Gran Riserva Brandy from Spain. The highest quality Cognac we tasted was a blend of wines aged between 10 and 70 years old. 

Tasting spirits is hard work, as the alcohol (40% abv) makes it difficult to sniff and sip without dulling your senses too much. The professional way to taste spirits is to cut the tasting portion with up to half as much pure/neutral water. This permits the taster to smell the aromas without burning his/her olfactory nodes. Spitting is, of course, essential, if one wants to stay alert and focused.

After class, a group of us continued our inquiry with an additional tasting session. The conditions were slightly less than ideal as we struggled to pull together a spitoon and tasting glasses from the items available in one classmate’s hotel suite. Nevertheless, we did successfully manage to taste through another 10 spirits, expanding beyond brandy into vodka, rum and whiskey/whisky.

By the end of the night (11:00 PM), having tasted through nearly 20 samples, we were all quite palate fatigued as well as generally fatigued as we bid our farewells and headed home. We were no longer quite as spirtied as we had been at the start of class, but we were much wiser about spirits.