My World of Brandy

For my second blog entry I look at the brandy Armagnac from France and here I focus on the Castarede family. The Castarede family in Armagnac in France has been dealing with Armagnac since 1832. What is Armagnac? Armagnac is a brandy produced in the Armagnac region. It is the oldest brandy in France but the production is much less volume than Cognac, like 30 times less. Also a another difference to Cognac is that in Armagnac a lot is being sold as vintages. I will talk much more about how Armagnac is produced in later blog posts. The Castarede family has four different brands of which I have tried three. First up is the Castarede from 1972. This vintage is made of 100% of the grape Folly Blanche. It was bottled on the third of January 2012. That means that this Armagnac is 40 years old. In the nose I get Marzipan and dark fruits. In the taste there is dark fruits, walnuts, Christmas cake and some spices. The aftertaste is long and spicy. An excellent vintage Armagnac. Next up is

Welcome to the blog of My World of Brandy. This blog will be all about the alcoholic drink brandy and the close cousins of brandy. What is brandy? It is a spirit produced by distilling wine. The alcohol level can vary and can be anything from 35% up to 65%. The worlds most famous two brandies are Cognac and Armagnac, both from France. But brandy can be produced all over the world. Sometimes the term brandy can also be used for the close cousins of brandy which is alcoholic drinks produced from fruits and the grape press remains after wine production. The French alcoholic drink Calvados is produced from Apple and pear while the Italian grappa is made from grape press remains. In the European Union for an alcoholic drink to be called brandy it has to be distilled from wine. Other countries may have different rules. Normally brandy is stored for many years in oak barrels before being bottled and sold to the public. Here there are many different rules depending on what is being produced